Changes
by forever-ami92
Summary: Rose comes back to school for her 5th year, only to discover that her arch enemy, Scorpius Malfoy, is actually being friendly. To add to this, Aaron McLaggen, Cormac's son, keeps trying to ask her out. My first fic so please review! Slightly AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Changes **

A/N: This is my first ever attempt at a fic. Please review. I realise that it's pretty cliché :) but I thought it was cute. Constructive criticism welcome but no flames please. It's meant to be a oneshot but I may write a sequel if anyone wants one.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THIS! It is owned by the wonderful J K Rowling.

Panting slightly, I dragged my heavy trunk through the familiar hustle and bustle of Platform 9 and ¾, trying to navigate a path to the train through the crowds. As it always was on September 1st, the platform was crammed with students, showing off holiday purchases and talking to each other at the tops of their voices. I followed my brother, Hugo, through a gap between two groups of shrieking second years, cursing under my breath as one of them jumped backwards onto my foot. The girl was so engrossed in her conversation with her friends, she didn't even bother to apologise.

''_Annoying little idiots' _I thought angrily to myself. '_How hard is it to stop and apologise?' _I took a deep breath. '_Calm down, Rose. In just a few minutes you'll be in a quiet carriage on the train.'_

I sighed, shaking my head to clear it. My bad mood was my fault: last night, after spending the last day of the holidays reading and writing last-minute essays, I'd been forced to spend most of the night packing for Hogwarts. I hadn't been able to go to bed until almost 4, and it had resulted in a pounding headache and eyes that were on the verge of closing. My mother had refused to make me any kind of potion that could help. I grimaced, remembering her lecture:

'_You can't afford to be this irresponsible, Rose. You're starting your fifth year, you've got OWLs, and it's about time you started being more organised.' _

I pushed the thoughts out of my head. If I kept dwelling on them, I would have to admit to myself that she was right. Pushing a strand of my bright red hair behind my ear, I came to halt beside my brother.

'You OK there, Rosie? Not too tired?' he grinned, reaching out to ruffle my hair. I slapped his hand out of way. I wasn't in the mood for his teasing at the moment. Luckily, just then, our parents made it through the crowds, ready to hug us goodbye before we got on the train. I felt my anger at my mother evaporate as she pulled me close. I hugged her tightly, feeling my eyes well up. I wasn't good at goodbyes.

***

About ten minutes later, I slumped, exhausted, against the window of the train. I was sitting with Lily, but she had gone out into the corridor to buy some food from the trolley, and it gave me a chance to rest. However, I had only been sitting like that for a few seconds when I heard the door of the carriage open.

'Lily?' I said, without looking up. 'That was quick. What did you buy?'

'Rose? Are you OK?' asked a familiar male voice, uncertainly. I started, quickly sitting upright, away from the window. In front of me stood a familiar blond boy, with pale grey eyes that were currently searching my face worriedly. As I stared at him, astounded that he had actually asked me a civil question, his face changed, going from worried to slightly more arrogant.

'I mean, not that it matters to me, I just...well, if you fell asleep and forgot to get off the train, then I wouldn't be able to tease you this year, that's all.' He added, looking towards the door as if he wanted to make a speedy exit.

I was still so surprised by the question that my brain was unable to form coherent thought. Scorpius Malfoy had done nothing but make my life hell since the moment when I'd first entered Hogwarts four years ago. He stole my books, made snide remarks in the corridors, hit me with jinxes from behind, you name it. Not that I let him get away with it. I smiled, remembering the time I had hit with a Bat Bogey Hex, learned from my Aunt Ginny for just these sorts of uses. She had used it on his father when they were all in school, she had told me. Scorpius, unable to get undo the hex, had been forced to spend an hour walking around with it in full effect before he finally admitted defeat and went to the hospital wing.

Pulling my mind back to the present – I had a tendency to daydream – I stared at him. Come to think of it, at the end of last year, he had been much better. Almost civil, at times, and he'd wished me a good holiday at the end of term. I had thought nothing of it at the time, as I had been busy trying to make sure I hadn't lost my wand, but now I remembered.

He was still standing there, still looking slightly arrogant, but much less than usual. He also looked worried, and somehow more human than he normally did. I had never noticed before, but he wasn't bad looking with his pale blond hair and the way it fell untidily into his eyes. A moment passed, and then I realised he was waiting for me to answer his question.

'Oh, um, yes, I'm fine, just tired.' I mumbled. '_Brilliant, Rose.' _I thought. _'Really great comeback there. He's really going to back off you now.' _

He didn't appear to have noticed my brilliantly witty response, but was still staring at me. I looked back, wondering if he was going to say anything else, when, suddenly, he took a step closer, hesitantly. When I didn't do anything, he continued until he was standing right in front of my seat.

'Rose.' he said quietly, looking into my eyes. 'I just wanted to apologise for how I've treated you for the past few years. I was really hoping we could be friends this year.'

I still said nothing, just sat there and stared at him. '_Come on Rose, say something! What's wrong with you?'_ I silently berated myself. What _was _wrong with me? Usually I had the problem of never being able to _stop_ talking.

'Rose.' he said again, interrupting my argument with myself. 'There's something else I need to say.' He took yet another step closer, and, to my utter astonishment, he rested his hand gently on my cheek 'I..'

At that exact moment, there was a loud crash in the corridor, followed by Lily's voice, apologising profusely over and over. It seemed she had knocked over the food trolley, and the chocolate frogs were now hopping all over the corridor.

'Rose! Would you mind coming out and helping us for a second?' Lily's called, sounding like she was fighting laughter.

Scorpius backed away from m quickly. 'I guess I'll see you later, Rose,' he muttered, and then, without another word, he turned and walked out of the carriage, disappearing down the corridor.

I followed him out, then stopped and surveyed the wreckage, still in a slight daze. The entire floor was covered in multi-coloured Bertie Bott's beans, and the chocolate frogs were indeed all over the place. Some were making an attempt for freedom and hopping down the corridor.

'Rose, what on earth was Scorpius Malfoy doing in our carriage? Rose? Rose! Earth to Rose!'

Lily's voice, now sounding slightly annoyed, interrupted my reverie. I turned and looked in the direction Scorupius had gone, feeling a smile slowly spread across my face. I had no idea what had just happened, but I had a feeling that this year was going to be very different.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: OK, I wasn't planning on continuing this, but after getting some requests for a sequel I decided to try. This is my first ever attempt at writing fanfiction, so bear with me. All constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. I will try to update fairly often over the next few weeks as I am on holiday. I have changed the ages of the characters for the purpose of the story. Hugo is older than Rose, she and Lily are the same age, and Albus Severus is younger than them. James and Hugo are 6****th**** year, Rose, Lily and Scorpius are 5****th**** year and Albus Severus is 1****st**** year. I'm sorry if anyone is upset with this. I will also be working on writing longer chapters. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe. I wish I did. I also do not own anything from Pride and Prejudice, which is briefly mentioned in this chapter. **

After Scorpius left our carriage, the journey was uneventful apart from a stream of questions from Lily about what he could have possibly meant by his apology and whether or not I was going to be friends with him. I eventually managed to stave off her questions – I didn't know the answers to any of them - by once again leaning my head on the window and closing my eyes.

The next thing I knew, I was being gently shaken awake by Lily, and we were at Hogsmeade station. Groggily, I gathered my things, including the cage containing my owl, Darcy, (named after a character in my mother's favourite book) and stumbled onto the platform, gasping as the cold air bit at my exposed face and hands. It was unusually cold for September, and after searching for an hour for my scarf the previous night, I had been forced to admit it was lost. Trying hard not to shiver, I followed Lily through the crowd, towards the carriages that would carry us to the castle. I had made it about halfway when someone, running through the crowds and shrieking at the top of her lungs, barrelled into me from the side. I caught a quick glimpse of the girl who had stepped on my foot on the platform, before she disappeared from view, again without apologising.

'_Unbelievable.' _I thought. I didn't know who that girl was, but for her sake, I sincerely hoped I wouldn't see her again for a while. I hadn't performed a Bat Bogey Hex all summer, and even now, my fingers were itching to reach for my wand.

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind, and looked around, searching for Lily, but I couldn't see her anywhere. Deciding to just get on a carriage – they were likely to be marginally warmer than it was outside – I headed in the direction of them, only to be stopped again, this time because someone had stepped out in front of me. This time, however, it was not an annoying second year.

'You look freezing,' Scorpius remarked, sounding a little more like his usual self than he had on the train, although once again I was struck by how much more normal he seemed, almost friendly. 'Don't you have a scarf?'

'I'm not cold.' I retorted, determined not to be lost for words again. 'I knew I wouldn't be, so I didn't bother to get my scarf out of my luggage.'

He looked at me intently, and I felt a little shiver go through me as his grey eyes met my brown ones. I shook myself, which only served to make it look as though I was shivering harder. What was _wrong_ with me? For the second time that day, Scorpius's voice interrupted my thoughts. He was smirking.

'So you lost it?' Speechless, I just glared at him, when to my total astonishment, he pulled his own plain black scarf from around his neck and held it out to me.

'Here,' he said casually. 'Wouldn't want you to be cold.' With that, he turned and strolled off, seeming – damn him - to have no trouble navigating through the crowds. I simply stood where I was, dumbfounded, the scarf clutched in my hand as I stared after him.

Eventually, I became aware of Lily's voice calling my name, and turned to see her waving at me from next to one of the carriages. Tucking the scarf under my arm, I was _not_ going to wear anything given to me by Scorpius Malfoy, I headed off to join her.

***

An hour later, having watched the Sorting and eaten the incredible start of year feast, I was more than ready to go to bed. My late night had left me exhausted, although I seemed to be the only one present who didn't have what appeared to be enough energy to run a marathon. My entire family, consisting of Hugo, Lily, James and Albus Severus, were sitting around me, talking at top speed with our friends, catching up on a summer's worth of news, and trying to trick Albus Severus, who was newly sorted into Gryffindor, into believing that there was no ceiling over the Great Hall and we were all in fact sitting in the open air. Lily's and my friends, Helen and Swarna, who were Gryffindors in our year and therefore shared our dormitory, were also there, and good as it was to see them after the summer, I didn't have enough energy to say much, and instead listened to everyone else. I did, however, notice that Swarna kept staring at James from behind her goblet and decided to interrogate her about at the first opportunity.

I barely managed to keep my eyes open through Headmistress Bones' speech, and Lily practically had to carry me up to the dormitory. I was vaguely aware of Helen's voice telling me not to stay up so late again as we clambered through the portrait hole and climbed the stairs to the dormitory, where I only just managed to pull on pyjamas before collapsing on the same four poster bed my mother had slept in when she went to Hogwarts.

The last thing I was aware of before I fell asleep was Lily's voice, asking 'Rose where did you get that black scarf?'


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! It really makes writing worth it and it makes it so much easier to write more chapters. I dedicate this chapter to everyone who reviewed the first two, and also my real life friends, Helen, Swarna and Lucy, who all feature in this fic :) Also, I know I promised longer chapters, but I wanted to get this up before the weekend, as I am pretty busy with family. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own it. **

The next morning, I managed to get dressed at top speed and run out of the dormitory before anyone else, muttering something about needing to use to library before breakfast. I could hear my friends making noises of disbelief behind me – I _never _used the library unless absolutely necessary, but I figured I could make up some kind of excuse to give them later. Anything was better than having to explain that black scarf.

I wasn't exactly sure why I was hiding what was going on with Scorpius from my friends, but part of me just didn't want them to start making plans for everything from how our first date should be to how many children we should have. I was sure Scorpius didn't like me – there must be some other reason for how he was acting – but I knew if I told them about the scarf, let alone the way he had touched my cheek on the train, they would immediately jump to conclusions.

I made it down to breakfast ridiculously early, but the Hall wasn't quite empty. Quite a few students, mostly first years, had apparently been so excited to be at school that they had awoken much earlier than necessary. As I made my way across the Great Hall to the Gryffindor table, I found myself searching the students sitting underneath the green and silver banner on the other side of the Hall, looking for that familiar head of blond hair.

'I do _not _like him.' I told myself firmly. 'I do not like him, and there is nothing going on between us. I am only looking for him in order thank him for his scarf and give it back right now.' I had brought the scarf down with me, in the hope that if I got rid of it as quickly as possible, Lily would forget it had ever existed. Or possibly decide that its appearance in the dormitory was an illusion caused by exhaustion. I wasn't fussy, as long as I didn't have to explain its presence.

Unfortunately, searching the Hall while walking through it is not the most sensible thing to do, and next thing I knew, I had collided with someone for the – what was it now? The fourth? – time in two days. I turned quickly to apologise and found myself face to face with Aaron McLaggen, a Gryffindor in the year above me. His father had gone to school with my parents, and although I didn't know much about him, I had always had the impression that neither of them had liked him much.

Although I had tried not to let my parents cloud my opinion of Aaron, I had never liked him either. Although he was undeniably good looking, tall and muscled, with messy brown hair and eyes the colour of the lake in July, his confidence bordered on arrogance and he was rude to anyone he deemed less important than himself, often pushing first years out of the chairs by the fire and barging in front of them in the corridors. He had never been rude to me personally though. In fact, I often caught him leering at me in the corridors and the common room. This had increased substantially over the past year, and although it made me uncomfortable, I didn't spend much time in his company and so didn't think about it.

Now, however, he was standing directly in front of me, and although he was smiling, there was something eager, almost hungry, in his eyes that made me nervous.

'I'm sorry.' I murmured, trying to move past him quickly. I was now wishing I had waited for someone to come downstairs with me.

'Rose, wait.' I reluctantly turned back to face him. 'I was wondering, would you like to have breakfast with me?'

I could feel my face turning bright red. Even though I didn't like Aaron in the slightest, I hated to hurt his feelings by turning him down. 'I...can't at the moment, sorry.'

He raised his eyebrows quizzically. 'Why not? Are you eating with someone else? I don't see your friends...'

'No, I'm...just grabbing some toast before I go to the library. I haven't finished my holiday Charms essay yet.'

'Oh.' Rather than disappointed, he looked extremely surprised that I would put finishing my homework higher on my priority list than eating breakfast with him. My guilt over rejecting him immediately evaporated. 'Well, in that case, would you like to...'

'Sorry, Aaron.' I interrupted. 'I really have to run.' With that, I grabbed a few pieces of toast from the table and headed straight out of the Hall, cursing my luck. Unfortunately, things got even worse a few seconds later, as I bumped straight into Scorpius outside the Hall. He was with Lucy, his best friend/possible girlfriend – I had never cared enough to find out before, and they were clearly about to go to breakfast.

I brushed past them at top speed, not even stopping to acknowledge Scorpius' 'Good Morning.' I had had more than enough male-related drama already that day. I couldn't_ believe _Aaron McLaggen had tried to ask me out. And did he think I was actually going to accept? I immediately regretted not being clearer about how I felt about him. It was only going to cause problems later if he tried again.

Half an hour later, I headed down from the Owlery – no way was I actually going to go to the library – wondering what on earth could possibly happen next. I was about hafway to the Great Hall, having realised I didn't have my new timetable, when I spotted Lily, Helen and Swarna coming towards me.

'Rose!' Lily cried. 'Where have you been all this time?'

'_Don't _try to tell us you spent all that time in the library,' added Helen, narrowing her eyes. 'We know you better than that.'

'I finished my homework, and then decided I would visit Darcy,' I said evasively. 'Anyway, what lesson do we have first?'

'Transfiguration,' said Swarna. 'We should get going, we'll be late.'

***

On the way to Transfiguration, I filled my friends in on what had happened with Aaron that morning. Lily and Helen agreed that I had done the right thing to turn him down, although Swarna thought I should have given it a go, mostly due to his looks. Her main argument was that we didn't know him very well, and he 'could be nicer once you get to know him.'

I disagreed strongly with this, but we were interrupted in our heated argument about the finer points of Aaron's character by James, who appeared in the corridor right in front of us, no doubt having just come from a secret passage.

'Hey, girls,' he said casually. 'Late for class, are we? It's so much easier being a sixth year.' He stretched his arms luxuriantly above his head and yawned dramatically. 'For instance, I have a free period now...don't have anything to do.'

'Shut up, James,' Lily said, smacking his arm. 'In a week's time you'll be snowed under with homework you left til the last minute and complaining about how terrible your life is.'

He flashed us a grin. 'I know, but for now I can just go and relax somewhere, without a care in the world.'

He walked off whistling, something I knew he was doing on purpose to annoy us. Turning to my friends, I saw that Swarna was smiling to herself, and suddenly remembered her staring at him last night at dinner.

'Swarna.' I said, as casually as possible, 'you don't...like...my cousin, do you?'

Lily gave a shriek of disgust at the possibility of Swarna having a crush on her brother, but Helen and I ignored her, our attention focused on Swarna.

'Well?' asked Helen impatiently, but Swarna had become very interested in something in her bag.

'Come on, we don't want detention on our first day,' she said briskly, and marched into the Transfiguration classroom, just ahead of us. The three of us looked at each other, burst into laughter, and followed.

Please, Please, PLEASE review.... :)


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: 25 reviews! I never thought I would get that many when I started, so thanks again to everyone who reviewed the first three chapters. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter :) **

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I still don't own it.**

The teachers proceeded to spend the morning drilling the importance of OWLs into our heads, so we were unable to continue our conversation on James and Aaron. I zoned out during Transfiguration and Charms, doodling absently on a scrap of parchment and wondering what my mother would say if I failed my OWLs. It wasn't a pleasant image.

At lunch, the close proximity of James and Hugo stopped us discussing anything really important, and the conversation consisted mostly of James complaining – just as Lily had predicted – about the amount of homework he had already been set, and how he was going to do it all and plan team tryouts. He had recently followed in his father's footsteps by being made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, something he was immensely proud of, and barely five minutes passed without him mentioning his apparently foolproof, yet top secret strategy to win Gryffindor the Quidditch Cup. Again, I noticed Swarna, who had never taken an interest in Quidditch before, hanging onto his every word. I laughed to myself, then turned my attention to scouring the table for Al, making sure he was alright. I caught sight of him at the other end of the table, talking and laughing with the other first years, and smiled. It looked like he was fitting in just fine.

It wasn't until we were walking down to the greenhouses for Herbology, just before lunch, that we had a chance to talk. Swarna still hadn't openly admitted to liking James, something Helen and I found very amusing, while Lily stuck her fingers in her ears and hummed loudly if anyone tried to talk about why her brother might make a good boyfriend.

It was Swarna, in an attempt to take the conversation off herself and James, who asked the question I'd been dreading all morning.

'So, Rose,' she started, raising her eyebrows. 'What's happening with you and Scorpius? Is he still acting friendly, or what?'

Apparently, Lily had filled the others in on what had happened on the train, probably while I'd been asleep the previous night. I glared at her, and she immediately started rummaging around in her bag. I wondered how many times people would use this ploy to avoiding talking about something throughout the course of the day – it had already happened twice.

'I haven't seen Scorpius today.' I said shortly, in response to Swarna's question. I still wasn't clear about what my feelings were on this matter, but I knew one thing - I did _not _want to talk about it. 'Anyway, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he goes back to being his usual self.' At that time, I had no idea, how short a time it would actually be.

This became very clear, the moment we walked into the greenhouse. Until that moment, I hadn't realised we would be having Herbology lessons with the Slytherins. Scorpius was already in there, sitting next to Lucy. He caught my eye as I walked in. I nodded briefly and looked away. He may have been acting nicer recently, but I wasn't ready to forget five years of teasing and insults just yet. Lucy, seeing the exchange, glared at me and said snidely 'So, Rose, I see you didn't get made a prefect. Your parents must be so proud of how well you're following in their footsteps.'

Too late, I noticed the shiny badge on her robes, and the matching one on Scorpius's, next to her. I blushed bright red. I hadn't wanted to be a prefect, but both my parents had been one and Hugo was currently one. I knew my mother had been slightly disappointed when the badge had come to Lily, not me. I opened my mouth to retaliate, but was interrupted by the start of the lesson.

***

Twenty minutes later, we were drawing diagrams of Bowtruckles, something I found both pointless – there was a diagram in the textbook, so why were we drawing them? - and annoying, due to the Bowtruckles' habits of trying to escape to the Forest at the slightest opportunity. I remembered my father telling me about Bowtruckles – he shared my views on drawing them – and rolled my eyes. Shouldn't lessons at Hogwarts have changed slightly in the twenty-odd years since my parents had come here?

My friends were getting on with the lesson in different ways. Lily, in typical Lily fashion, had somehow managed to convince her Bowtruckle to stay still, and had produced a beautiful drawing that would no doubt gain her an O. Our family had been joking for years about how Lily was more like my mother than either of her own parents. Swarna was ignoring the actual Bowtruckle, except to prevent it running away, and was copying the diagram out of the textbook, something that I thought very sensible. Helen hadn't started any drawing that I could see, and was surreptitiously grabbing Puffapod seeds from a bowl behind her and flicking them in the general direction of the Slytherins. Grinning at her, I reached over, grabbed one, and threw it at Lucy, laughing to myself as it hit her head and immediately burst into flower, becoming entangled in her hair.

'Rose, what are you doing? Could you start your drawing please?' Neville, or Professor Longbottom, as I had to call him at Hogwarts, called from the other side of the greenhouse. As he was an old friend of my parents, I saw him frequently outside of Hogwarts, and we got on very well, although this didn't mean he would let me do nothing in his lesson. He apparently hadn't noticed the Puffapod seeds littering the ground though, and neither had most of the Slytherins. I was wondering how anyone could possibly be so unobservant, when Lucy suddenly discovered the flowers stuck in her hair.

Giving a shriek of annoyance, she tried to yank them out, but they only became more and more tangled in her auburn hair. They appeared to be attached by some sort of resin. By this point I was in hysterics, struggling to control myself, and several other students had noticed and were laughing as well. Lucy, still yanking at the flowers, suddenly caught my eye, and glared at me again, in a way that made me sure she knew I had thrown the seed. This did nothing to stop me laughing, but my amusement vanished as Scorpius reached over to help her disentangle the plants, gently pulling at them bit by bit, although they appeared to become more and more sticky with each attempt.

'Miss Porter?' Neville – I could _not _think of him as Professor Longbottom - asked, coming over to investigate. 'How did those Puffapod seeds get into your hair?'

Lucy shot me a look of pure evil. 'Weasley threw them, sir,' she said, sounding completely innocent. 'And now we can't get them out.' She sniffled, and, to my utter disbelief, began to cry, although it was completely obvious to me that she was pretending.

Neville turned to me, looking disappointed, although I could have sworn I saw his mouth twitch. 'Rose, is this true?' I couldn't deny it, so said nothing.

Neville sighed. 'Rose, I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you detention. Mr Malfoy, could you please escort Miss Porter to the hospital wing? Those seeds will need an Anti-Sticking Potion in order to come out.'

Lucy shot me a triumphant look from behind Neville's back, then started pretending to cry again as Scorpius led her out of the greenhouse, with his arm around her. I was watching them leave, no longer even remotely amused, when she turned to me and said, loudly enough for the whole class to hear: 'That isn't going to make you prefect, Rose. In fact, I'm sure your mother is even more disappointed in you now.'

That hit home. I was reaching for my wand when Scorpius said softly 'I agree Rose, that was low.' The way he looked at me was almost disgusted.

Lucy grinned evilly. My hand dropped limply back to my side. It was nothing, considered to what he usually said to me, but still. I'd had hopes that we might be friends now, that he might have stuck up for me against Lucy. OK, so I _had _thrown a Puffapod seed at her, but it was only because of that crack she'd made about me not making Prefect at the start of the lesson. I hated that I'd disappointed my mother by not making the position, and I really didn't want to be constantly reminded of it. The fact that he would take her side hurt me, much more that I would have expected it to. Much more than it should have.

My foul mood lasted for the rest of the afternoon, through dinner. At 5 o'clock, I made my way to the Great Hall for my detention. Neville met at the bottom of the stairs and led me to the dungeons.

'Today, Rose, you're going to help Professor Parkinson by extracting the juice from dead leeches, for use in Shrinking Solutions,' he said, smiling sympathetically. I groaned. Not only was that disgusting, but I hated the thought of helping out Professor Parkinson. Pansy Parkinson had gone to Hogwarts with my parents. Although general opinion was that she had been on Voldemort's side during the war, she had never been convicted of anything and Headmistress Bones had no choice but to give her the job of Potions teacher.

'Professor Parkinson is busy this evening, so you will working unsupervised,' said Neville as we approached the Potions classroom. 'But you won't be alone, I believe there are two other students who have managed to get detention on their first day too.'

At the door of the dungeon he wished me luck and headed off. I entered, very much wishing I could be back in the dormitory with my friends, discussing our first day. I hadn't thought about what Neville had said about two other students joining me, until I saw who they were and stopped in my tracks.

Sitting at a table, next to a giant cauldron of dead leeches, sat two boys. Scorpius Malfoy and Aaron McLaggen. I groaned internally. This was sure to be a very long evening.

**Please review. It makes my day :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in updating, this was a much harder chapter to write than the others and I'm not sure I got it right. Thanks to everyone to reviewed the previous chapters! **

**Disclaimer: I still don't own it.**

I walked into the dungeon, deliberately not looking at either boy, although I could feel both watching me. Luckily, I was saved having to choose where to sit by the spare knife and pair of protective gloves on the table next to Aaron.

'Hi, Rose,' he said brightly as I slid into the seat. He seemed pleased that I'd chosen to sit with him – the spare equipment seemed to have escaped his notice – and had also appeared to get over his disappointment at my rejection of him that morning. 'So what did you do to end up in detention?'

Scorpius nodded politely at me from the opposite side of the table. 'Rose,' he said curtly, barely acknowledging me as he took a leech from the cauldron and crushed it with his knife. I nodded back, then turned to Aaron, still angry at how he hadn't stood up for me that morning.

'I threw a Puffapod seed at someone's head in Herbology,' I told Aaron, causing him to burst into laughter. 'What did you do?'

'Sorry to interrupt this fascinating exchange,' said Scorpius icily. 'But hadn't you two better start on the leeches if we going to be finished any time before midnight?'

Unfortunately, he had a point. The cauldron was huge. I grabbed a leech and started to extract the juice, then smiled at Aaron, indicating he should continue, ignoring the voice in my head that screamed at me to stop encouraging him. I flatly refused to sit there and chop up leeches for hours without talking to anyone, and after what had happened in Herbology that morning, Aaron was the lesser of two evils.

'Oh, I locked a first year in a broom cupboard,' said Aaron, still laughing. My tolerance of him decreased somewhat as I imagined someone doing that to Al. How could he lock some poor kid in a cupboard on their first day?

I caught Scorpius's look of disgust out of the corner of my eye, which stopped me saying this to Aaron. I knew it was stupid, but I wasn't going to give Scorpius the satisfaction of agreeing with him on anything today.

However, after having learned what Aaron had done, I found it much harder to view him at all positively, and answered all his questions with one word answers. Eventually, he gave up, and the three of us sat there in silence, methodically taking leeches out of the cauldron and crushing them, then tipping the juice into an empty container.

As I worked, my mind was occupied with only one thing: trying to work out what Scorpius could have done to end up in detention. He wasn't the type vandalise the castle, and we'd only been back at school for a day, so it was unlikely to anything work related. Although he'd pulled many pranks on me during our first four years at Hogwarts, they hadn't been serious, and he was a master at not getting caught. What could he possibly have done?

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as I crushed what must be my 100th leech of the evening. He worked efficiently, and had finished more leeches than either me or Aaron. I was debating the possibility of him getting detention for the simple reason of being late for something when I felt a sharp pain in my hand and cried out. I looked down to find that I'd managed to cut my finger with the knife, no doubt because I'd been paying more attention to Scorpius than what I'd been doing.

I flushed bright red as both Scorpius and Aaron looked up sharply – did Scorpius know I'd been watching him? - and dropped my eyes to my hand. The cut was clean but pretty deep, and there was a lot of blood.

'Rose!' Aaron shouted, jumping to his feet. 'Are you all right? Let me see!'

I had no problems with blood, and no intention of letting Aaron look at the cut. I was about to cover my cut left hand with my right one – I was left-handed, something apparently very rare for a witch, which made duelling slightly awkward – when I felt someone gently take it. I turned, only to discover that Scorpius was holding my hand, and gently probing my cut finger.

He looked up and our eyes locked, for the first time since the Herbology lesson. I was horrified to discover that having him holding my hand didn't disgust me, like it should. In fact, it felt sort of _good._ His hand was warm, and the pressure felt good on my cut. I could feel my cheeks heating up again.

'This cut isn't serious, Rose,' He said, not looking away from my eyes. 'A simple spell should take care of it right away.' He pulled his wand from inside his robes, apparently about to clear it up. Despite him being my arch enemy for four years, I somehow trusted him to fix it for me.

'Wait a second.' Aaron interrupted. 'Shouldn't I fix it? I've done my OWLs and have more experience. Wouldn't want you to mess up on something so important.'

Scorpius dropped my hand and turned to face Aaron. I barely registered this; I was starting to feel light headed and dizzy, and my finger was throbbing. I took a deep breath and started to count to ten.

'Rose?' Scorpius asked, leaning towards me. 'Are you feeling faint? Put your head between your knees.' He got up and started to make his way around the long table towards me.

Aaron took advantage of Scorpius having to walk around the table to kneel down, quickly take my hand, point his wand at it, and mutter something under his breath. The wound closed at once, to be replaced by a thin white scar. Another spell siphoned off the dried blood. I immediately felt better, and smiled at Aaron.

'Thanks,' I said, feeling friendlier towards him than I had all evening. Partly, I was grateful to him for fixing my hand, but another part of me was glad he'd interrupted Scorpius. I was now thinking clearly enough to be confused. Why had I reacted that way to Scorpius taking my hand? I pushed the thoughts to the back of my head to be dealt with later.

'No problem, Rose,' smiled Aaron, climbing to his feet. 'I was happy to help.' He sat down again. Scorpius, seeing I was feeling better, retreated to his seat.

We continued with our work. Aaron began to make conversation again, and this time, eager for any distraction from my thoughts, I made an effort to talk to him. The discussion consisted mainly of Qudditch – he wanted to play Keeper, he said, as his father had done. It was easier to talk to him than I expected - although a large proportion of what he said was focused on himself - but I was always conscious of Scorpius, sitting opposite me. When I looked at him, he was always focusing on the leeches, but I could feel his eyes on me when I looked at Aaron.

By the time we got to the last few leeches, I was desperate to get away from the dungeon, away from Scorpius. I had never felt so confused in my life. I dumped the last of my juice in the container, then stood up to leave. Aaron, finishing at almost the same time, stood up too.

'It's been great talking to you, Rose,' he smiled. 'Really made the evening more enjoyable.'

I muttered something of the yes-it-has variety and made to leave, but he took my arm to stop me going past him. I looked at him enquiringly without saying anything. I really just wanted to leave.

'Rose, you ran off before I could get a chance to ask you this morning.' Aaron said quietly. He seemed to be determinedly ignoring the presence of Scorpius, who was just finishing his final leech. 'I was wondering if...you'd like to go out some time?'

I froze. I had had a feeling he was going to ask me something like that again, but I didn't know what to do. He had been much nicer this evening than I'd ever seen him. He'd fixed my hand...I didn't want to seem ungrateful by refusing now. Yes, he had a tendency to be rude to first years, but maybe he could be talked out of doing things like that. Plus, Scorpius was right behind me, making no effort to pass me and leave the room. He might have seen me watching him...or worse, seen me blush when he took my hand. If I said no now, he might think I _liked _him.

To my eternal shame, that was what made the decision for me. I couldn't let him think I had a crush on him. Not after what he'd done to me for four years.

'Yes,' I said to Aaron, as quickly as I could. Watching his face light up, I smiled at him, thinking that maybe I'd made the right choice and this could be a good thing. He smiled back, then left the dungeon.

I paused to adjust the sleeve of my robe, and was suddenly pushed roughly to the side by Scorpius racing past me. He turned to give me only one long look as he left the dungeon. I understood nothing about that look, but I knew I'd never forget it. There was something in his eyes that made him look almost...hurt. No. That couldn't be it. That made no sense at all. I headed back to Gryffindor Tower, thinking of nothing but my upcoming date with Aaron Mcaggen.

It wasn't until I was almost there that I realised I had never asked Scorpius why he had been in detention.

**Please review...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: OK, I wrote a much longer chapter here, as I will updating much less frequently over the next couple of weeks as I'm going on holiday to Australia! I'm going on Saturday, but haven't even started packing yet, so while I may get another one up before then, it's unlikely. I hope you all enjoy this, and don't give up on the story if no updates appear for a while – I will go back to updating every few days when I get home :) And thank you so much, as usual, to everyone who took the time to review. **

**Also, sorry to everyone who read the original version of this – the end of the file didn't post for some reason. This is the full version of the chapter. **

**Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own it.**

It wasn't until I looked at my watch, right before I reached the Fat Lady, that I realised it was almost eleven. Wow. It had taken us longer than I'd thought to crush those leeches. The Fat Lady was asleep in her frame, something that surprised me as it wasn't that late. I supposed the first full day of school had taken its toll, although why a portrait would be tired I couldn't imagine. Maybe she was exhausted from swinging open and shut all day?

'Puffapod,' I said, wincing at the unfortunate choice of password. I wasn't in the mood to be reminded of the events of the day. The Fat Lady didn't respond.

'Puffapod!' I practically shouted, just wanting to collapse into bed. She jerked awake.

'All right, all right, I'm up!' She said grumpily, swinging open to admit me. I scrambled through, then stopped in my tracks, although this time it was because a smile was spreading slowly over my face.

The common room was empty, save for two people. Swarna and James sat at the table closest to the fire, doing their homework. This made sense, as they were both the type of people to mess around all evening and only get down to work when it absolutely couldn't be avoided. However, what couldn't be explained away easily was how close they were sitting to each other, or the way Swarna was laughing at something James had said. They both looked extremely happy to be where they were, which I was glad to see. At least some people were happy around here.

I coughed, which made them both jump and look up almost guiltily.

'Rose!' exclaimed Swarna, jumping to her feet and knocking over an inkwell. Luckily, the ink ran off the table and onto the floor, missing both their essays. 'How was your detention?'

'Weird,' I replied. 'I'll tell you in the morning. For now, I'll just let you two get back to work.'

With a smile to James, I headed up the stairs to the dormitory, only to find, exactly as I had expected, that Helen and Lily were still up, waiting for Swarna or I to arrive and share some gossip.

'Are they still down there?' Helen asked in hushed tones – I had no idea who she thought might hear – as soon as I walked in.

'Well, yes.' I replied. 'If they weren't, Swarna would be up here now, wouldn't she?'

Helen smiled sheepishly, while Lily went into a very long explanation at top speed about how they would have waited in the common room for me but they and James had been the only ones left and he and Swarna still had homework to do so they had come up to give them a moment and waited for me here and I was surprised she hadn't run out of breath by this point.

I interrupted to fill them in on the story of my detention. By the end, both of them were gaping at me, but Swarna still hadn't appeared.

'So, you're going out with Aaron McLaggen?' gasped Helen. 'But...you were so against that this morning! It sounded like you would rather date a Blast Ended Skrewt!' During holidays with my family, my father had given Helen many detailed descriptions of Blast Ended Skrewts, describing them as 'monsters from places worse than hell' that would only be kept as pets by 'the utterly mad.'

'I know,' I started, but Lily interrupted with 'Yes, but she couldn't really say no after he fixed her hand, Helen. And she said he was much nicer today...I bet it won't be so bad....maybe even fun!'

'Yes, well, we'll have to see,' I said. 'I don't even know when we're going out yet, but for the moment, I'm just going to go to bed.'

I had done no homework at all, but decided that I would deal with it tomorrow. For now, I just needed some sleep. And maybe some time to think. The one thing I hadn't told my friends was how good it had felt when Scorpius had taken my hand. I said goodnight to them, got dressed and got into bed. I could hear them talking to each other for a while, but eventually they dropped off to sleep.

The most interesting this about the night was that, though I lay awake for longer than I'd like to admit, replaying the events of detention in my mind, Swarna never came up to bed.

***

The next morning, I was woken up by Helen shaking me at some ridiculous time, trying to get me up so – and I kid not – I could tell Swarna the events of my detention and we could all hear what had happened with James so that 'no one would have to repeat themselves.'

'Helen,' I groaned from underneath my pillow. 'You do know we're likely to spend the rest of the week dissecting what happened last night, and everything will get repeated a hundred times anyway, so you could have let me sleep for half an hour more?'

'Yes, well, you're awake now, so you might as well get up,' was her only reply before she used a charm to tip the mattress, dumping me on the floor.

After we'd dressed, I filled Swarna in on the events of my detention. She was so shocked at my imminent date with Aaron that it was several minutes before we could induce her to tell her story.

Even then, all she would say was that 'she had had a lot of homework left over from the holidays' and had come up to the dormitory about 3, once she'd finished it all. She and James had 'talked', she said, but nothing else had happened between them.

I rolled my eyes at Lily. Swarna was always secretive, but this was getting ridiculous.

***

Twenty minutes later, the four of us headed down the stairs to the common room. Aaron was standing next to the portrait hole, apparently waiting for me.

'Rose!' he exclaimed, as soon as he saw me. 'I thought I might have missed you! Come on, let's go down to breakfast.'

I shot my friends an apologetic look as Aaron took my arm and pulled me through the portrait hole. He chatted nonstop all the way down to breakfast about how nervous he was – apparently James had announced Quidditch trials would take place the following day. I tried to mention something about how I intended to try out for Beater, as I'd been practicing over the holidays, but I found it extremely difficult to get a word in edgeways.

My mind wandered as we headed down the stairs into the Entrance Hall, but I was brought sharply back down to earth as I noticed Scorpius and Lucy standing by the entrance to the Great Hall. Scorpius looked up and caught my eye, and I felt a little jolt go through me as he nodded and gave me a half smile. It looked like he wasn't quite as annoyed with me anymore as he had been last night. I felt a tiny warmth spread through me as I thought this, although I wasn't sure why this was. His gaze then travelled over to Aaron, next to me, and the smile abruptly vanished. He seemed to really dislike Aaron for some reason that went beyond Aaron's implying he wasn't good enough to fix my hand.

I was interrupted in wandering why this could be by another sight, that bothered me just as much as Scorpius's apparent hatred of my – I shuddered slightly – potential boyfriend. James was just ahead of us, and he was walking into the hall with a girl I recognised as a Gryffindor in the year above us. Her name was Suzy Edgecombe, and she was the daughter of another person who had gone to school with my parents, although I couldn't remember the name. She was extremely tall, and could easily have been a model in the Muggle world, with her waist length brown hair and huge brown eyes. Obviously, every boy at Hogwarts fancied her, and she had a reputation for taking any guy she wanted, regardless of his relationship status.

I didn't like the sight of her with James, especially not the way he was laughing at a joke she'd made, or the way she was looking at him through her eyelashes. I liked it even less as she passed Scorpius by the entrance to the Great Hall and shot him a look that could only be described as flirty. She held his gaze as she entered the hall. I looked daggers at the back of her head, then wiped the expression off my face as I saw Lucy looking at her the same way. Why did I care if she liked Scorpius anyway? It was her and James I should be worried about.

During my breakfast with Aaron, I paid barely any attention to what he was saying (although, from what I heard, it was a detailed description of the many reasons why it wasn't his fault that he hadn't made the Quidditch team after four years of trying out).

I was occupied with glancing around at a) Suzy and James, who were eating together at the other end of the table, b) Scorpius and Lucy at the Slytherin table, the latter of whom was staring distrustfully at Suzy, and c) my friends, who were sneaking looks of their own at both Aaron and I and Suzy and James. I wondered whether anyone was actually paying attention to what they were eating this morning.

***

I have no idea what I was supposed to be learning that morning. Half my brain was occupied with trying to convince Swarna that James would never go for Suzy, although I had a sinking feeling that he might, and the other half was replaying that look Suzy had shared with Scorpius. A very small voice in the back of my mind was reminding me that Aaron had, at breakfast, asked me to go on the Hogsmeade trip on the last weekend of September with him, as our first official date, that I'd said yes, and that I really should be focusing on that and obsessing over what to wear and what to talk about. Lily, being the conscientious one, kept trying to urge us all to pay attention and take more detailed notes, but no one could concentrate. I vaguely wondered, somewhere in the recesses of my brain, what Helen was obsessing over.

***

The depressed mood continued for the rest of the day. Helen snapped out of her reverie, and she and Lily attempted to get Swarna and I to talk, although neither of us was interested. Swarna was so grumpy it became impossible to talk to her, so the two of them took to asking me why I was so cranky, something I wasn't quite sure of myself, but I put it down to the giant pile of homework I had, thanks to not doing any the previous night, and the possibility of having Suzy in the family someday. This idea promptly shut Lily up too, and eventually Helen gave up and we spent the rest of the day determinedly making conversation about pointless topics that weren't really what any of us wanted to discuss.

Despite this, I woke up the next morning feeling rejuvenated at the idea of Quidditch tryouts. I'd played Chaser on the team since second year, but had this year decided to try out for Beater instead, as I'd been practicing the position over the holidays and preferred hitting Bludgers to scoring goals. The team's original Beaters had both left Hogwarts, increasing my chances of making the position. I felt my chances were further enhanced by the fact that I there was any number of people whose heads I could imagine the Bludger was.

Unfortunately, we did have to get through a day of lessons first. The morning passed incident free, with Transfiguration and History of Magic, but the afternoon consisted of double Potions with the Slytherins. Suzy and James had eaten both breakfast and lunch together, but I'd caught her exchanging more looks with Scorpius, something which put her on the top of the substitute Bludger list. How could she want both of them? And why did she have to break up what had looked like a blossoming romance between my friend and my cousin?

I was thinking black thoughts along these lines, when Professor Parkinson burst in through the doors, immediately yelling 'Weasley! Stop slouching in your seat before I take points from Gryffindor!'

The Slytherins all burst into laughter, although I noticed, with another jolt, that Scorpius wasn't laughing. I pulled myself up in my seat and tried to pay attention to the lesson.

Halfway through making my Shrinking Solution (yes, we were using all those crushed leeches), something landed with a _plop! _in my cauldron, and the potion exploded in a haze of bright purple. Due to reflexes born of several years of Quidditch training, I managed to dive out of the way by flinging myself across the aisle. The upside to this was that I didn't get splashed by Shrinking Solution. The downside was that I bashed straight into Scorpius, and we ended up on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

I scrambled to my feet, and hastily apologised to Scorpius, much as it irked me to do so. He stood up, brushing down his robes, and accepted my apology in a surprisingly gentlemanly fashion. However, I wasn't exactly thinking about this at that particular moment, because it was then I noticed that Helen had been covered by Shrinking Solution, and as a result had shrunk to about half her normal size. Professor Parkinson was racing down the aisle to investigate the source of this.

When she saw the state of my exploded cauldron, she laughed nastily and sneered 'Playing games with your Potion, Miss Weasley? That'll be fifty points from Gryffindor.'

She dragged Helen up to the desk for an antidote, ignoring my half formed apologies to Helen and explanations for what had happened. What had actually caused the explosion became clear the moment I looked in my cauldron and discovered what looked like a salamander tail that had been set on fire. I heard laughter behind me and turned to see Lucy staring at the tail in my hand and grinning. I grimaced. So that was how it was.

Helen wasn't at all angry with me for splattering her with Potion. In fact, as the four of us headed to tryouts – the other three were planning on watching me – all we could talk about was how to get Lucy back, as we were all certain she'd thrown the tail. Swarna was all for slipping a finished Shrinking Solution into her drink so she could get a taste of her own medicine, but the rest of us thought that was too obvious, although, as Swarna pointed out, whatever we did, Lucy was sure to blame us for it.

We were still debating when our conversation was interrupted by our arrival at the pitches. I headed off to stand with James, Aaron, and everyone else who was trying out, while the other three headed up to the stands. I noticed Suzy sitting in the front row, her eyes fixed on James, and narrowed my eyes in her direction. My eyes travelled up the stands, to where Scorpius and Lucy were sitting. Their presence made sense, as both played Quidditch for Slytherin. It made me feel a bit better to see that Scorpius was _not _looking at Suzy. Good to know that not all guys were incapable of taking their eyes off her. I tried to talk to Aaron before we started, but after receiving yet another description of his nerves, and not a single question about how I was feeling, I gave up.

Tryouts were no different than usual. James started off with basic exercises, and they got harder as tryouts went on. He himself played Seeker, just like his father and grandfather had done. I gave my tryout everything I had, loving the feeling of being airbourne again. I whacked Bludgers at everyone in sight, using the exercise to release my pent up frustration at Suzy, Scorpius, Aaron and Lucy, to name but a few.

After just over an hour and a half, we had a team. Happily, I made Beater, along with Scott Wood, a fourth year. Aaron made Keeper, something I felt sure I was going to hear about for the rest of the school year, and the Chasers were three girls I didn't know, but resolved to talk to more in the immediate future. I'd always felt team spirit was an important part of being able to win.

After James told everyone to go, I headed off to my friends, catching up with them just in time to watch the nauseating sight of Suzy running up to him so that they could go up to the castle together. The four of us simultaneously turned away in disgust, only to end up face to face with Scorpius and Lucy. Scorpius smiled at me, more warmly than he had in days.

'Good tryout, Rose,' he said. 'Congratulations.' I caught a glimpse of Lucy glaring at me as they walked past us and headed up to the castle.

**Please hit that little button...**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So, I'm in Australia, but have been diagnosed with tonsillitis :(. I'm supposed to be resting to gain enough energy to go out later, so I thought I'd write another chapter, but I'm not feeling 100% so it might not be the best I've ever written. Also, I'm using my father's laptop to type this, not mine, and it has a very small keyboard which I'm not used to, so there may be some typos. Hope you all enjoy it, and thanks for all the reviews. I can't believe there are more than 50!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it. **

Over the next few weeks, we settled into our fifth year. The workload was huge, much more than anything we'd faced previously, and being constantly reminded of the 'imminence' (I thought they were still a long way away) of OWLs by the staff was tedious, but somehow I managed to get through it. This was mostly by occasionally listening to Lily when she insisted I do homework instead of heading out to Quidditch practice early to do some extra flying. I also managed to avoid further detentions – I just didn't have time between work, Qudditch, and avoiding Aaron.

He was really starting to get on my nerves. He was waiting every morning for me by the portrait hole for me, expected me to eat every meal with him, often turned up outside my classes, ready to walk me to the next one, and sometimes tried to butt in on my conversation with my friends in the common room.

To start with, my friends had all been inclined to consider this 'romantic' but after two week of his constant presence, even they agreed that he had crossed the line to 'annoying'. No one would have minded so much if it hadn't been for the fact that his only topic of conversation was still himself. I was beginning to wonder if he only wanted me as a girlfriend due to a lack of friends in his own year. I would have told him I had had enough, except for a persistent voice in the back of my head that told me I couldn't dump him before our first official date. A date that was now approaching, as the last weekend of September grew closer.

Having decided that it would be too mean to end things with him, I took to getting up extremely early to try and avoid him, convincing my friends to join me in this so that I wouldn't be alone at breakfast when he arrived downstairs. As all three of them were notoriously bad at getting up in the morning, they took turns to come down with me. This only worked about 50% of the time, as Aaron, used to getting up early to practice Quidditch, would simply wait earlier. This meant I would often use the library excuse and hide in the Owlery until one of my friends joined me with a stack of toast.

I hated that I was being so cowardly, and part of me just wanted to end it with Aaron already, but there was another reason why I couldn't, much as I hated to admit it to myself. During conversations with him, I had, many times now, noticed Scorpius watching us, a peculiarly triumphant look on his face. As, despite my best efforts, I imagined I generally looked extremely bored during these conversations – Aaron didn't notice, not being the most perceptive of people – I could only imagine that the idea of things not working out between us was pleasing to Scorpius. I had no idea why this could be, but as I was too stubborn to do anything that might make Scorpius happier, I resolved to try as hard as possible to try and make things work out with Aaron. On our date, I was going to try, really try, to draw the conversation off him and into more interesting topics.

***

On the morning of Saturday, September 30th, I woke early, wishing very much that the day was already over. A glance across the dormitory showed my friends were all still asleep, so I opened the curtains with a flick of my wand. I was going need a lot of moral support to get ready for this day.

'Aaarghh.' Lily moaned, as light infiltrated the room. She shoved her pillow on top of her eyes. 'Whose turn is it to get up with Rose? I'm sure I did it yesterday.'

Helen and Swarna both mumbled something that sounded like 'It's not my turn,' before rolling over so they weren't facing the window, and trying to go back to sleep.

'It's Saturday.' I informed them. 'We don't have to go to breakfast this early.'

'Well then, why on earth have you woken us up at this ridiculous time?' groaned Helen.

'We're going to Hogsmeade. I need help getting ready for Aaron.'

That got them out of bed, and they were soon helping me get dressed. We had decided that, in keeping with my decision to try and make things work today, I was going to make an effort with my appearance, so I wore my best robes. Lily applied a Straightening Charm to my long red hair, and we left it loose. I also applied a bit of mascara, eyeliner and lip gloss. I hardly ever bothered with makeup – I didn't even own any and had to borrow from Swarna – but my friends convinced me that today was a special occasion.

While we dressed, Swarna casually asked Lily and I if James planned on going into Hogsmeade. My heart sank as I told her he was. I had hoped Swarna might be over James by now, as he had spent most of the last few weeks with Suzy glued to his side, but apparently she wasn't.

***

Aaron was waiting for me by the portrait hole, as was his custom. Reluctantly, I said goodbye to my friends, and headed outside with him. As we walked through the grounds towards the gates, he reached out and took my hand, something he had never tried before. I let him, remembering my promise to myself to try and make this go well. However, something felt wrong about him holding my hand. His hand was cold, and I just didn't feel comfortable. I told myself I was being stupid – sadly, this was my first official date, and I had nothing to compare it to – but I couldn't shake the feeling that Aaron's hand just wasn't right.

The walk into Hogsmeade was surprisingly pleasant. Aaron told me I looked nice, and even asked me what I wanted to do. After debating walking up to the Shrieking Shack, we decided to wander around the shops, and the go for a drink in the Three Broomsticks, the same pub our parents had gone to when they were our age. My friends were likely to be in their too, something that cheered me up.

We went first to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which my Uncle George had opened in the building where Zonko's used to be, as an extension of his business in Diagon Alley. I had written to him that I was coming to Hogsmeade today, but he had replied that he unfortunately wouldn't be able to come down as he was in Egypt with his brother, looking for materials to create a new range of products that he promised would be spectacular. This was a pity as I would have liked to see him, but on the other hand, I had a feeling that if he knew I was on a date he'd never stop teasing me.

'So, your uncle owns this place, right?' said Aaron as we walked in.

'Right,' I replied, on my guard, in case he was about to ask If that meant he got free samples of products.

He smiled. 'He must be a genius! The products are fantastic!'

I smiled back. 'They really are something, aren't they?'

Looking at all the products together, and joking about which ones we'd most like to use on Professor Parkinson, I felt some warmth towards Aaron, something I hadn't expected. I was feeling happier by now. Maybe this would work out.

After the joke shop, we shopped for a few odds and ends, before heading to the pub for our drink. Aaron took my hand again, something that shattered my tentative sense of wellbeing. I still had that sense that it was _wrong. _ This sense of wrong dramatically increased as we entered the pub. Yes, my friends were there, but so were both James and Suzy and Scorpius and Lucy, and typically, they were sitting around of the only empty table in the place. Aaron gave me a little push towards the table.

'Quick, you sit down, Rose, I'll get the drinks,' he said. I did as he suggested, sitting at the table, but not making eye contact with anyone surrounding it, not that they were paying attention to me anyway. From my position, James and Suzy's table was right in front of me, while Scorpius and Lucy were on my left. I fiddled idly with my sleeve until Aaron arrived with the Butterbeers.

We drank in silence for a bit – it was unusually cold outside, and the drinks were lovely and hot. I was about to suggest we call it a day and head back to the castle when we finished, when James stood up and headed in the direction of the bathroom. As soon as he was gone, Suzy stood up too, and to my complete and utter disbelief, walked right up to Scorpius, interrupting his conversation with Lucy to bend down and whisper something in his ear, looking flirty. Obviously, I couldn't hear what it was, and neither apparently could Lucy, although she looked furious. I wondered how Suzy could possibly have the nerve to do something like this in public. Wasn't she worried someone would tell James? Did she just not care about anyone?

Once she'd finished speaking, Scorpius merely nodded, his face impassive. Suzy, looking offended, flounced off back to her table. I found myself happy he'd rejected whatever it was she'd said. Much as I wanted to see James with Swarna, I didn't want to see him hurt by Suzy cheating on him, as it unfortunately appeared they were together now. My feelings of happiness obviously had nothing to do with the fact that it was Scorpius who had rejected Suzy. He could date whoever he wanted. I really couldn't care less.

It was while I was telling myself this that he looked up, and his eyes fell on Aaron's hand, once again holding mine, this time on top of the table. He raised his gaze to meet my eyes, and it was then that I realised why I felt Aaron holding my hand was wrong. I _did _have something to compare it with. When Scorpius had taken my hand during detention, in order to take a look at the cut, it had felt much better than Aaron's. Warm, and soft, and…wait. What was I thinking? Did I honestly think that Scorpius Malfoy taking my hand was preferable to Aaron McLaggen? I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. Maybe this date wasn't going so well after all. 

**Review please :)** ** Also, the next chapter will be the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch match. **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I'm still on holiday, but was just really looking forward to writing this chapter, so decided to do it early :)**

**Disclaimer: I never will own it :(**

We headed back to the castle after our drink. I didn't notice much about the walk, being absorbed in thoughts about Aaron and Scorpius and their respective hand holding skills, but once we arrived at the castle, I wasn't able to dwell on it for long. James came around the common room telling the team that he wanted a full day practice the next day, starting at the crack of dawn. Our first match, against Slytherin, was in a week's time and apparently his top secret plan was finally ready to be unveiled.

Knowing that I would have no time at all the next day, I spent the evening doing homework, while my friends played wizard chess and shot dark looks at the corner where James and Suzy were sitting. I also headed up to bed early – I was tired from the walking we'd done in Hogsmeade, and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep immediately, and not have to face my thoughts.

***

The next day was as exhausting as I had expected, but everyone played well, and James had high hopes for us to take the Cup. The only glitch in the day was when he had to threaten to hex Scorpius and Lucy to get them away from the pitch. Finally, they left, Lucy glaring at us all over her shoulder, and James returned, muttering non complimentary things about Slytherin spies under his breath. I stared at Scorpius as he headed back to the castle, but not once did he look back.

The rest of the week passed in much the same fashion – Quidditch, in every spare moment. By this time, I had become acquainted with the Chasers. Their names were Rachel, Melodie – Mele for short – and Callie. All three were in fourth year, but there wasn't much time to chat, what with James trying to teach us new moves he'd invented every minute of the day. One of the few good things about the week was that I wasn't alone with Aaron much – James insisted that the team eat meals together so he could lecture us on strategy. Apparently sticking together would also make us less susceptible to jinxes from the Slytherin team.

This appeared to work, as everyone made it to the day of the match unjinxed. It was cold, not unexpected in early October, but the sky was clear and visibility was good. I gave up on sleeping at about half past five, and headed down to eat with the rest of the team. During breakfast, I couldn't stop myself shooting glances at the Slytherin table, where their team, which included Scorpius and Lucy, was also downstairs for an early start. I felt uneasy at the thought of James and Scorpius playing Seeker against each other, although I didn't know why.

Time passed quickly once we finished eating breakfast. One second we were walking down to the pitch, the next James was hissing 'Good luck everyone! Don't forget the plan!' and shaking hands with the Slytherin captain. Then Madame Hooch (still at Hogwarts from my parents' time) made the call, and we all kicked off the ground.

The first thing I was aware of, as always, was the cool breeze on my face and the whistle of the wind through my hair. I loved flying, loved it with every bone in my body. I soared high up above the crowds, then took aim at a passing Bludger, whacking it towards Lucy and making her drop the Quaffle into Mele's waiting arms. Grinning, I looped round, just in time to see Scott hit the other Bludger at the Slytherin Keeper, distracting him just long enough for Mele to score Gryffindor's first goal. Our section of the stands burst into cheer as Mele tossed her blond curly hair, a smile on her face, and flew off to try to regain the Quaffle.

For the next twenty minutes, it seemed as though Gryffindor were unable to make a single wrong move. All of James's strategies worked like a charm, and I knew he would be incredibly full of himself later on, if we won this match. And it seemed we would. The Chasers performed brilliantly, scoring goal after goal. Aaron saved some attempts on our goal that made me wonder if maybe he wasn't exaggerating in all the stories he'd told me of his Quidditch prowess. And Scott and I worked well as a team, hitting the Bludgers towards whichever Slytherin players looked in danger of actually jeopardising our winning streak.

I let the commentary (from my own brother, Hugo) slide over my head as I flew after the nearest Bludger. And that's when I saw him.

Scorpius was lying flat out on his broom, flying at full speed, just ahead of me. A few feet in front of him was a tiny, fluttering golden ball. And although we were doing well, we were only one hundred and twenty points up. We were going to lose. Cold seeped through me. We couldn't. Not now.

Just then, the Bludger I'd been chasing doubled back on itself, zooming towards me. The bat suddenly felt heavy in my hand as I raised it, meaning to hit the ball as hard as I possibly could towards the back of Scorpius's head. I took aim, but as I was about to swing, I froze. He was so close in front of me…if I hit the Bludger hard and it hit him from this distance, he could be seriously injured. On the other hand, if I hit it at all gently, it wouldn't hit him in time. I should just whack it with all my strength, I knew. But I couldn't. I kept seeing Scorpius's face as he tried to fix my hand.

'Rose, what are you doing?' Scott's yell broke my reverie as he swung up beside me and hit the Bludger with all his might. Luckily, his shout had alerted Scorpius, who reflexively looked behind him, and dodged, before once more going after the Snitch. James had noticed it by this point and was flying as fast as he could towards it, gripping his broom with only his legs, both his arms stretched out as far as possible.

It was extremely close. Scorpius's change in direction meant James was closer, but Scorpius rode the very latest broom, while James refused to ride anything but his father's old Firebolt. They were neck and neck as they approached it, but James was already in position to catch it, which just gave him the edge. He snatched it triumphantly from just ahead of Scorpius's reaching fingers, and then zoomed off in a victory lap of the stadium.

The Gryffindor crowd had gone wild. As we landed, what seemed like the whole house ran at us, and lifted us on their shoulders, screaming and chanting 'We won!' in unison. Despite the general party atmosphere and the happiness of my entire house, I couldn't enjoy any of it. We had almost lost because of me. Because I'd been reluctant to hurt someone I didn't even like. What on earth was I doing?

I dragged myself out of my thoughts and immediately wished I hadn't. Suzy had run out of the crowd and up to the pitch in order to kiss James on the lips. Catcalls and wolf whistles were coming at them from all directions, but they were ignoring them, wrapped in each other arms. I averted my eyes. OK, no celebrating in our dormitory tonight then.

***

Half an hour later, a party was in full swing, but the four of us were slumped in chairs at the side. Although she'd never admit it, we could tell how upset Swarna was, so we all remained by her side. Everyone had, however, congratulated James on his strategy, and they urged me to go and sit with him and the rest of the team in the seats of honour next to the fire, but I refused, saying it was because I didn't want to sit so close to Suzy, who was sharing a chair with James, and also had no desire to listen to my cousin brag about his skills as Quidditch Captain for the next few hours.

While this was all true, I had a another, more important reason. Since the end of the match, Scott kept shooting me looks that reminded me that he'd seen me hesitate over the Bludger, He hadn't told anyone, and I knew he wanted to talk about it, but I didn't want to share what had happened with anyone, particularly a younger boy I didn't know that well.

What I really wanted was to be alone. I knew I couldn't keep running away from things like this. I needed to work out exactly why I preferred Scorpius taking my hand to Aaron. And why I had been so hesitant to hit that Bludger at him. However, all this left my head when I saw Suzy climb out of the chair she was sharing with James and leave the common room. Muttering something about needing a walk, I jumped up, but before I left the common room, I headed to our dormitory to borrow Lily's inheritance from her father – the Marauder's Map.

This allowed me to follow Suzy from a big enough distance that she couldn't hear me. I wasn't sure why I was following her, expect that I couldn't shake the feeling this had something to do with what I'd seen her whisper to Scorpius in Hogsmeade the week before, and I wanted to see if there was something happening between them. She was obviously James's girlfriend now, after all.

She stopped by a suit of armour on the fifth floor. I ducked behind a tapestry that was conveniently nearby and waited. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Scorpius arrived, although he didn't look nearly as happy as she did to be there.

Suzy moved towards him. They were quite far away from me, and I had to strain to hear.

'I'm sorry you lost the match,' Suzy said softly.

'So am I,' said Scorpius shortly. 'Although I don't understand why you are, your house won. I also don't understand why you asked me to meet you here.'

'I wanted to see if I could cheer you up,' Suzy said. Again, softly. She placed her hand gently on his cheek, and, as I watched in disbelief, started to lean in.

**Review, please? :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I'm home now! So expect more frequent updates. As usual, thank you so much to everyone who took the time to review. I hope you enjoy the new chapter :)**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

I didn't wait to see what happened next. Her hand touched Scorpius's face, and I was running. I didn't even look back to see if they had noticed me. I made it about halfway back to the common room before collapsing in an alcove to process what I'd seen. Well, what I'd almost seen.

Suzy was cheating on James. That was the most important point here. So why couldn't I stop myself imagining her kissing Scorpius? Why was I dwelling on that? What I should be worried about was how I was going to prevent my cousin getting hurt by his lying, cheating_ cow_ of a girlfriend. The fact that Scorpius was involved meant nothing to me. _Nothing. _

My head in my hands, I contemplated what to do next. Telling James would be unquestionably the moral thing to do. But if I told him, he'd get hurt. And...Suzy and Scorpius would probably have a real relationship, and come out in the open. Scorpius had been so much nicer this year. Did he deserve to be with someone as nasty as Suzy?

Deep down, I knew I couldn't think about Scorpius. I had to tell James. It was the right thing to do. With a heavy heart – I wasn't looking forward to the look on his face when he heard – I headed back to the common room.

***

I told my friends first. I needed help deciding how to tell him. Everyone, although sorry for James, didn't really look surprised. Swarna, in particular, made several comments about how 'he was better off without her', a sentiment which everyone agreed with.

Once the common room had emptied out a bit, I headed over to James. Suzy still hadn't returned.

'James, could I talk to you in private for a moment?' I asked, my heart pounding.

'Of course, Rose,' he said, sounding surprised. 'Back in a minute, girls,' he added to Rachel, Callie and Mele. Scott and Aaron had both gone to bed. He followed me to a quiet corner of the common room.

'Are you feeling better?' he asked. I'd forgotten how I'd excused myself from sitting with the team by claiming I had a headache and needed to sit away from the noise.

'Yes, thanks.' I said shortly. 'Listen, James, there's something you should know.'

I told him quickly what I'd seen. His eyes grew wide, and he started pacing in front of me, his eyes in his pockets.

'Are you sure it was Suzy, Rose?' he asked. I hadn't told him I'd specifically followed Suzy, only that I'd thought a walk would help my headache.

'Certain,' I replied.

'But you didn't see them actually kiss?'

'No – because I left at that point. I wanted to tell you.'

His face cleared. 'If you didn't see them actually kiss, maybe nothing happened. I'm sure Suzy has an explanation for this.'

I couldn't believe it. 'James, she had her hand on his cheek. I'm telling you, she's cheating.'

He stubbornly refused to believe me, and at that exact moment, with perfect timing, the portrait hole opened and Suzy walked in, looking exhausted. James immediately called her over. I took a deep breath. Now she, and Scorpius too, were going to know I'd spied on them.

James told her, as quickly as possible, what I'd said. Her eyes flashed from his face to mine, and I saw the anger in them. I wondered why she looked so tired. Shouldn't she be happier?

She turned back to James, and her expression changed to one of total innocence. 'I don't know what you're talking about,' she said. 'I only met Scorpius because I was helping him with a Transfiguration essay he was having trouble with, that I remember doing last year. I just had to give him some advice.'

I was appalled at the total rubbish she thought qualified for an excuse. I was even more appalled that James showed signs of actually believing her.

'Why wouldn't he go to someone in his own house?' I burst out. 'And I saw you put your hand on his cheek!'

'You know, Rose, Gryffindors and Slytherins aren't enemies anymore,' Suzy replied smoothly. 'And I didn't touch him. I don't know what you're talking about.' She turned to James. 'I don't know how you could possibly believe her, James!'

She gave me the iciest look I'd ever seen, then stalked off to the dormitories without looking back. James turned to me, looking angry.

'Look what you've done, Rose,' he said furiously. 'Why on earth didn't you make sure of what you were seeing before you believed the worst?'

With that, he left too, leaving me standing there, on my own, with no idea what to do next.

***

A few minutes later, I joined the others in our dorm room, and told them what had happened. There was a shocked silence. No one could believe James had believed Suzy's lies. Lily timidly suggested I ask Scorpius what had happened, but I pointed out that he knew Suzy had been with James, so he would know what was going on and would back up her lie.

Everyone, at a complete loss for words, went to bed soon after I came up. However, an hour later, Swarna's voice came through the dark 'Guys! Are you awake?'

I sat up immediately. I hadn't been able to fall asleep, and judging by how quickly Lily and Helen reacted, they hadn't either.

'What is it?' Helen asked.

'I had an idea,' Swarna said excitedly. She looked happier than she had all day. 'Why don't we try and trap Suzy and Scorpius, so that James sees them?'

My heart sank. I really didn't want to hear anything about Suzy and Scorpius. I'd thought I was becoming friends with Scorpius, but how could I be friends with someone who'd do something like this?

Helen and Lily, however, were all for this idea. 'How are we going to trap them?' Lily asked.

Swarna frowned 'I can't come up with all the good ideas around here!' she said, leading me to believe she had no plan at all. 'Everyone try to come up with an idea.'

I let myself fall back into bed as the three of them brainstormed, although it didn't sound like they were coming up with any good ideas for how we could get James to walk in on Scorpius and Suzy together. Eventually, I went to sleep, blocking their conversation from my mind.

The next morning, however, I awoke to them already working on their first plan, which was to send notes to both Scorpius and Suzy, each signed from the other one, and asking the recipient to eat breakfast quickly and go to the empty Transfiguration classroom while everyone else was eating. Apparently, they would then tell James that Suzy wanted to see him in this classroom.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm sharing a dormitory with three lunatics.

'That is never going to work,' I informed them. 'Scorpius and Suzy are going to realise that the notes didn't come from each other. When James turns up, he's going to find them trying to figure out who the notes are from. That is, if they don't guess immediately.'

They just told me to stop being so negative, and rushed off to the Owlery to send the notes.

I sighed and headed down to breakfast on my own. Upon arrival in the Great Hall, I dropped into the seat beside Hugo, barely noticing that Aaron sat opposite him. Apparently, they'd become friends in recent weeks. James, on Hugo's other side, barely acknowledged my presence.

'Morning, Rose.' Hugo said cheerfully. 'You look bright and happy this morning.'

I muttered something dark and reached for some toast.

'OK, on a serious note, have you seen Al today, Rose?' Hugo asked. 'He hasn't come down to breakfast yet, and you know he normally eats early. Come to think of it, that little friend of his isn't here either.'

Since starting at Hogwarts, Al had become close friends with an incredibly small and annoying first year named Nigel. I had no idea how on earth Nigel had gotten into Gryffindor, as he was probably one of the weediest kids I'd ever seen, but the two were completely inseparable. I was already foreseeing many holidays which involved Nigel staying with our family, and jumping out of his seat with fright at every noise. And holidays in our family were never exactly quiet. I could only hope Al would be invited to Nigel's house sometimes, or that I wouldn't be staying with my cousins while he was there.

At Hugo's words, I quickly scanned the Gryffindor table. No Al. However, I did see an owl arrive in front of Suzy, who was sitting quite far away from James for a change. She was apparently still angry that he had believed my 'lies'. I quickly turned to the Slytherin table, realising after a moment that Scorpius wasn't there. Apparently, disappearing acts were popular this morning.

Suzy, meanwhile, had opened her letter, and to my disbelief, was now leaving the Great Hall. It appeared that this ridiculous plan actually had a chance of working. I supposed one of my friends would appear in a moment to give James his message.

A second later, I noticed an owl flying around the Slytherin table, clearing looking for someone. So maybe Scorpius hadn't gotten his owl earlier and left already, as I had assumed. But then, where was he?

I ate my toast in silence, pondering this problem. I barely looked up when Swarna arrived to tell James that Suzy wanted to see him in the empty classroom, not wanting to see the huge smile I was sure would be on his face. Al didn't turn up, and eventually, I resolved to go looking for him, in case he'd gotten lost and gotten his foot stuck in a trick step on one of the staircases or something.

Hugo refused to come with me, apparently three pieces of toast and two bowls of cereal was not enough breakfast for him. Amazed at the amount of food guys could eat, I headed out into the Entrance Hall, and began to retrace the route to Gryffindor Tower.

I hadn't gone far before I heard a commotion down a corridor. My heart sank. I knew Al was part of that commotion. I could feel it in my gut. I raced down the corridor at top speed.

I was right. Halfway along the corridor stood Albus, Nigel, a Slytherin sixth year I knew was called Frank Grimsby, and...Scorpius. What on earth was he doing here?

Stranger still, a suit of armour lay on the floor, looking very much like it had been knocked over, fairly violently. However, I had no time to process this, because Scorpius had pushed Grimsby up against the wall, and had his wand pointing at the older boy's throat.

'If I ever see you doing that to a first year again,' Scorpius hissed, his voice angrier than I'd ever heard it 'I will personally make sure you regret the day you set foot in this castle. Do you hear me?'

Grimsby, whose wand lay on the floor on the other side of the corridor, could do nothing but nod. Scorpius let him go, with a furious 'Now get out of my sight.'

Grimsby picked up his wand, and, scowling, headed off in the direction of the Great Hall. I turned away from him, back to the scene in front of me, and opened my mouth to enquire as to what the hell was going on.

At that moment, however, I heard a noise behind me, Scorpius raised his wand, aimed it over my shoulder, and shouted '_Protego!'_

I was knocked off my feet by a powerful rush of air from behind me, and fell painfully to the floor.

'Rose! Are you alright?' Scorpius ran towards me, and took my hand to help me up. Again, I was conscious of how warm it was.

'He took a parting shot at you from behind,' said Scorpius dryly. 'Tried to Stun you, but I managed to reflect it.'

Sure enough, Grimsby now lay on the floor, clearly Stunned. I had heard of his reputation as a bully before, and figured he must have been doing something to Albus and Nigel. I hadn't thought he would attack me from behind though.

'He's a complete coward,' said Scorpius distractedly, as if reading my thoughts. 'Tried to Stun these two from behind and lock them in a suit of armour. It could have been days before they were found.'

Furious, I started to stride over to Grimsby, but Scorpius pulled me back. 'Don't worry. He won't touch them again. And if he does, I'll have something to say about it.'

I turned to him, looking into his eyes, kinder than I'd ever seen them. 'Thanks,' I mumbled, forgetting that I was meant to be angry with him for being with Suzy. It was impossible to be angry with someone who'd just saved my cousin and his friend from what could have been days of being shut up inside a suit of armour.

Speaking of which...I turned to Albus and Nigel, who looked pretty shaken up. 'Come on,' I said gently, taking Al's arm. 'Let's go and get you some breakfast.'

Scorpius ended up coming with us, as he hadn't eaten yet. I realised this meant the plan had failed, and wondered what, with a sinking heart, what had happened when Suzy and James had been alone in the classroom. I might not have wanted her with Scorpius, but that definitely didn't mean I wanted her with James. I would feel much better if she left every guy in my life alone.

When we entered the Great Hall, I saw my friends sitting at a table, and headed off to ask them what had happened.

'Rose.' Scorpius's voice came from behind me. I turned.

'I didn't have a chance to say it before, but well done on the match yesterday. You played brilliantly.' He smiled, then turned and headed to his table, leaving me staring after him, open-mouthed.

**You know the drill...please please review :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks to everyone for all the feedback on the last chapter :) it was great! Oh, and the next chapter will be a pretty special Christmas chapter, with lots of appearances from our favourite original characters. **

**Disclaimer: I wish it was mine, but it's not. **

We'd left Grimsby's Stunned body in the corridor, but a friend of his must have found him and helped him, as I heard nothing more about the incident. Over the next few weeks, I kept a close eye on Scorpius and Nigel, but he seemed to be leaving them alone. Al had begged me not to tell James, Hugo or Lily, not wanting an all out war, so I had reluctantly promised I wouldn't unless Grimsby touched them again. I was therefore unable to tell my friends what Scorpius had done for Al and I and continued to be confused over how he could be so nice to me while helping Suzy cheat on my cousin.

The first plan appeared to have completely backfired on us. Suzy and James took the opportunity of being alone in the classroom to make up. Undaunted, my friends spent most of October trying out several other plans to get Scorpius and Suzy in the same room and then send James in, but all failed. I had a feeling Suzy was onto us, having noticed her glaring at me more than usual after the first note. However, there was nothing she could do without admitting she had gone to that classroom to meet Scorpius, and I didn't want to admit to what the others were doing by telling her I wasn't involved.

Aaron and Hugo's new friendship meant Aaron had now joined our family for meal times, but being friends with Hugo and part of a big group seemed to have encouraged him to talk less about himself, and I was actually enjoying his company these days. However, this didn't change the fact that we'd been together over a month and had yet to kiss.

'It's just _weird_, Rose,' said Helen, as we were getting ready for bed, one night in late October. 'You've been together almost two months. Get a move on.'

'Well, it's not like we're ever alone,' I retorted. 'You three are always around, or worse, Hugo.' James spent all his time with Suzy these days, so wasn't often around us. He hadn't yet forgiven me for what had happened after the match, even though he and Suzy had made up.

'Maybe on Halloween you two can go somewhere and be alone,' suggested Lily. Halloween was now less than a week away.

'Maybe,' I muttered, and got into bed. I wasn't sure I wanted to kiss Aaron, although I didn't exactly know why. Instead I thought about Scorpius, wondering again how anyone could change so completely. For the past few weeks, he'd been as good as his word, and looked out for Aaron and Nigel – no one in Slytherin had touched them, and I'd actually seen Grimsby move aside to let them pass in the corridor the other day. He'd also been friendly to me, making small talk when we met in the corridors. I was beginning to wonder if anything was actually going on between him and Suzy – the one time I'd seen them in the same room, they had completely ignored each other. I hadn't voiced this thought, however, because I knew my friends would never believe it, especially as I was the one who'd seen Suzy and Scorpius together in the first place.

Halloween came, and we pulled on our best robes and went down to the feast. The Great Hall looked fantastic, decorated with live bats, jack o'lanterns with faces that appeared to move, leering at each person in turn, and skeletons that looked disturbingly real. The light from hundreds of candles danced on the walls, which had been covered completely with black. The sky was pitch black too, and the only light came from the candles and the pearly white sheen of all the castle ghosts, who'd come to the Hall to join in the festivities.

We all sat down in our usual seats near the centre of the Gryffindor table, and enjoyed the live music, performed by what appeared to dancing skeletons, and the feast. The house elves (now all paid, thanks to some work done by my mother) had really outdone themselves. Every type of food I could possibly imagine was there. The guys all immediately loaded their plates with more food than I could eat in a week and began to tuck in.

'Whoa, slow down, guys,' Lily said, rolling her eyes. 'I'd really rather none of you exploded during this meal, it would make a huge mess and ruin the night for the rest of us.'

The guys totally ignored her, and continued eating, as I had expected. This made conversation with them impossible, and I spent the meal talking to my friends. I was, however, aware of Scorpius, at the Slytherin table, eating at a normal speed, and talking animatedly to Lucy. I was silently comparing him to James, Hugo and Aaron, and marvelling at the fact that he came out on top, in table manners at least, when I became aware that Aaron was talking to me.

'Rose, you've got something on your cheek,' he said, leaning forward to, as if to brush it off. And then...he kissed me.

It was completely unexpected and I only just managed to stop myself pulling away. I was vaguely aware of the catcalls of what sounded like most of Gryffindor ringing in my ears, but I was unable to focus on them. I wasn't able to focus on them because I was so preoccupied with the fact that I was feeling...nothing. I'd always read that you were supposed to experience something during your first kiss, hear birds singing or something like that. I'd always thought it was stupid, but surely I was meant to feel something? Why wasn't I? Aaron pulled back and smiled at me, but I only stared back at him, confused. As everything else slowly came back into focus, I saw Scorpius again, staring at us, with the same look he'd had when he left our detention.

I sat back in my chair, and managed a smile. Aaron sat back too, looking triumphant. Eventually, conversations started up again, but I just sat there, lost in thought.

I hadn't felt anything. That meant I should break up with Aaron. I knew it did. Although I felt bad about this – he clearly liked me, and I didn't want to hurt him, having come to actually like him, albeit as a friend, something I was just coming to realise, over the past few weeks – I knew it was the right thing to do. Now the only thing to decide was, when would be the right time? And how?

After the feast, I said goodnight to Aaron and Hugo – James still wasn't talking to me – and went up to bed, deciding not to bring this up tonight and ruin my friend's Halloween. I would do it soon though, I promised myself. I would tell them and get their advice on how to tell Aaron.

***

Unfortunately, a week later, I still hadn't managed. Our workload was so heavy we, along with the other fifth, sixth and seventh years, spent every evening in the common room, working well into the night. This meant that every morning, we'd get up in just enough time to throw on robes and run to breakfast. We'd be joined in the common room by Hugo and Aaron, who'd have all of our meals with us, and in lessons there'd always be someone else to close to us to talk. Aaron had kissed me a few more times, and each time I felt desperately to feel something, but I couldn't. I knew I had to break up with him soon.

And then, a week later, a letter arrived that changed all my plans.

It was from my mother, telling me that the entire extended family was going to spend Christmas at Grimmauld Place this year. As there was already going to be a huge number of people, the adults had decided we could all invite one friend, as a few more people really wouldn't make much of a difference. Lily had a similar letter from her mother, and the two of us immediately invited Swarna and Helen, who were happy to accept.

The four of us went up to the Owlery to let our parents know who would be coming. On the way there, I realised that, _finally, _we were alone, and quickly explained the situation. Although shocked, they agreed I had to break up with Aaron. After a quick discussion, we decided I should just tell him the truth – I liked him as a friend, but not more than that. I realised I'd know all along I should just tell him this – keeping it simple – but I had put it off, needing the moral support of my friends.

However, this wasn't fair on Aaron, and I resolved to break up with him immediately. Knowing my friends supported me and didn't think I was insane for only realising now that I didn't like him romantically, I felt much better, and brave enough to do it.

We headed back to the common room. I had decided to just ask if he would speak to me privately for a minute, when we clambered through the portrait hole, only to find Aaron and Hugo grinning at us. Hugo was holding a letter.

'Guess what, Rose?' Aaron exclaimed. 'Hugo's just invited me to spend Christmas with your family! And I accepted. I can't wait!'

He leaned forward to kiss me but I managed to stop him by enthusiastically telling him how happy I was to hear this, and how much I too was looking forward to it.

***

That night, I reflected there was no way I could break up with him now. He was a good friend of Hugo's – Hugo would want him to come for Christmas. But he probably wouldn't if I broke up with him. And if he did it would be hugely awkward. There was nothing for it but to keep our relationship going for the next month – and try my hardest to change the way I felt about him.

My friends agreed, and our life continued in much the same way. James continued to ignore me, which really hurt. I wished he would forgive me, but he was spending so much time with Suzy that I supposed I wouldn't get to talk to him much even if he had. Even Lily didn't talk to him that much anymore. None of us even knew who he was bringing to Grimmauld Place for Christmas. The one time Lily had asked, he'd told her he hadn't decided and would tell her when he had, but he had never brought it up again. Al was bringing Nigel, something that came as no great surprise to any of us.

On the last morning of term, I grabbed my trunk and headed to the Entrance Hall with Swarna and Lily. We were just wondering where Helen was, when she came rushing over at top speed.

'Rose! You'll _never _guess what I've just heard!' she exclaimed breathlessly.

The three of us urged her to tell us, but it took awhile for her to get her breath back.

Finally, she began.

'I was just returning my books to the library when I heard Frank Grimsby talking to a friend about how much he hated Scorpius, and how much he'd like to hex him. The friend warned him not to,' she said, her eyes shining, 'But can you guess why?'

We couldn't, so she continued. 'Apparently, that day you threw the seed at Lucy' I winced, not appreciating the reminder, but said nothing. 'some sixth year started making fun of you and how immature you were, and it escalated to him just slagging off you and your personality in general, and Scorpius hexed the guy so badly he had to be carried to the hospital!'

The three of us just blankly stared at her.

'It's true!' she exclaimed. 'That's why he was in detention with you that night! Rose, he hexed someone in his own house just to stand up for you.'

Completely gobsmacked, I leaned backwards against the wall. _What? _ That made absolutely no sense. Why would he do that?

'Rose, he must like you!' said Lily excitedly. Helen and Swarna nodded their agreement.

'No,' I whispered. 'No, he can't. He must just have not liked that guy, and wanted an excuse to hex him.'

Their faces fell slightly at this, but Helen persisted. 'Rose, no. He must like you. It's the only explanation that makes sense.'

I opened my mouth to reply, when I heard Lily's voice.

'Um, guys?' she said, looking at something over my shoulder. 'You might want to see this.'

I turned around, to see James approaching us. He smiled at me, for the first time in about a month, but I had no time to appreciate this, because Suzy was at his side, looking very much like...no.

'Hi, girls,' James greeted us. 'I don't think I've had a chance to tell you yet, but I invited Suzy to spend Christmas with us.

Suzy grinned evilly at me, as I turned to stare at my friends in utter disbelief. Both Aaron and Suzy. What a Christmas this was going to be.

**Please review...**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: It's the Christmas chapter! I couldn't wait to write this one, so you're getting a fast update :)**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

On the train, the four of us managed to get a compartment to ourselves, thankfully. We had a lot to talk about. The moment we had shut the door, Helen and Lily started raging about Suzy and how she was sure to ruin our Christmas. Swarna, however, just sat quietly a corner. I supposed she had wanted to spend some time with James this holiday without Suzy constantly in the way. The only good thing about this situation was that at least they had forgotten about how Scorpius supposedly liked me. I too tried to push this out of my mind and focus on the daunting prospect of Christmas with both Aaron and Suzy. It seemed preferable.

Helen and Lily's heated rants passed straight over my head. Try as I might, I couldn't stop thinking about what Scorpius had done for me, and what it could possibly mean. I had the uncomfortable feeling that Aaron wouldn't do something like that for me.

Some time later, the noise of the approaching food trolley pulled me out of my reverie. Jumping to my feet, I offered to go into to the corridor and get everyone some food. Helen and Lily paused briefly to thank me, while Swarna nodded distractedly, lost in her thoughts. By the tiny smile on her face, I thought she was probably imagining how happy our Christmas might have been if it wasn't for Suzy's presence.

I headed out into the corridor and paid the witch at the trolley for generous quantities of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, and everything else the trolley had, feeling that we would all need plenty of nourishment to face the next few days. Taking my food, I thanked the witch and turned around, only to bump straight into Scorpius and Lucy, who had apparently also come to buy food.

Cakes, pastries, beans, and everything else I was carrying immediately tumbled to the floor. Face flaming, I bent down, face as red as my traditional Weasley hair. Lucy simply smirked and stepped over me to the trolley, but Scorpius immediately bent down to help me gather the fallen food. He grinned at me, and my returning smile was genuine, which seemed to spur him to speak.

'So where are you going for Christmas?' he asked, sounding genuinely interested.

'Grimmauld Place – where my aunt and uncle live.' I replied. 'The whole extended family is going to be there.'

'That sounds fun – much better than my Christmas!' he responded. 'I'm just going to Malfoy Manor with my parents and grandma – no brothers or sisters or cousins. Luce is coming to stay though.'

Something about the way he said this made me suspect he didn't get on too well with his family. Before I could question this however, Lucy finished buying her food and turned towards us.

'Come on Scorpius, let's go,' she said shortly. She gave me, crouching on the floor next to Scorpius, the onceover, and I suddenly wondered if maybe Suzy wasn't the one Scorpius was with after all.

She must have decided she couldn't completely ignore my presence, because, looking right at me, she said 'What are you still doing here, Weasley? Surely you should be back with your _boyfriend_? The one who you always look so _happy _with in public?'

I glared at her with pure hatred. I could tell by her tone of voice that she knew that things between Aaron and I were strained, on my part at least. What if she were to tell Scorpius, or worse, Aaron?

To my amazement, Scorpius looked annoyed. 'Leave her alone, Lucy,' he said angrily. 'She's not doing anything to you.'

Lucy looked amazed that Scorpius could possibly be annoyed with her, then turned and flounced back to her compartment. Scorpius shot me an apologetic look and followed.

***

The rest of the journey passed uneventfully, except for the fact that the four of us made a pact to try and ignore Suzy and enjoy ourselves as much as possible. Finally, the train pulled into Platform 9 and ¾ and we clambered off, dragging our trunks, plus various animals in cages. We were met by both my parents and Lily's, all of whom looked delighted to see us. They took turns to hug us. I hugged both my parents tightly, suddenly very happy to see them. So much had happened during the term that I hadn't thought of home much, but all of a sudden I wanted nothing more than to curl up on a sofa and catch up with my entire family.

Everyone was suddenly talking at once. Uncle Harry and my father wanted to know how our Quidditch was going, while Mum wanted to know if we were up to date on all our work, and Aunt Ginny was asking if I had used her Bat Bogey hex again. It was chaotic, but I loved it, every second.

However, I did notice, as James introduced Suzy to the adults, that both my father and uncle seemed completely stunned by her. I wasn't sure if this was purely because of her looks, or merely because they were amazed James could get a girl who looked like that. Either way, I didn't like it. I also noticed a look between Mum and Aunt Ginny which told me they didn't think too much of her, however, which made me feel much better.

We set off for the car park. I was careful to keep Al and Nigel, who were small enough to keep getting lost in the crowds, in front of me until we reached the magically enlarged cars that would take us to Grimmauld Place. As I climbed in, I felt that surge of excitement again. I couldn't wait to see the rest of my family.

***

As it happened, hardly anyone had arrived yet. The only people at Grimmauld Place were my Grandma and Grandpa Weasley. Grandma squeezed us all so tightly we couldn't breathe, then told us to go and get ready for dinner. I'd no doubt dinner would be huge, but I'd been looking forward to my Grandma's cooking for weeks. Despite the immense amount of food I'd consumed on the train, my stomach growled in anticipation.

'Where are we sleeping, Grandma?' Lily asked, always the sensible one. I'd been prepared to dash off upstairs with no idea where I was supposed to go.

'Oh, let's see,' Grandma replied, tearing her attention away from the stew she had bewitched to stir itself. 'It'll be a bit of a squash, I'm afraid, but there are going to be a lot of people staying this Christmas.'

We all assured her we didn't in the least mind being squashed, and, looking happier, she tried to remember which rooms had been set up for us.

'Hmmm, you three older boys, you're going be sleeping on the third floor, the room on the left when you get up the stairs, 'she said, indicating James, Hugo and Aaron. 'Albus, you and Nigel will be sleeping in the small room opposite. Girls, you're all together, in the big room on the second floor. We managed to cram five beds in, it's very cramped but I'm afraid you'll have to make do.

A hissing noise came from the stove, and looking flustered, she turned to attend to the stew, leaving the five of us girls all looking equally sick. Apparently, Suzy hadn't bargained on sleeping in a room with us either. All I could think was '_So much for our plan to ignore her.' _

***

By dinnertime, the house was complete chaos. My uncles George, Bill and Percy were there, along with my aunts, Fleur, Angelina, and Penelope. Uncle Harry's godson, Teddy Lupin, and his wife, my cousin Victoire, were there too, along with their one year old son, Jacob. Victoire was pregnant again, and glowing. I couldn't wait for the birth, Completing the party was Trixie, our completely hyperactive and overexcited house elf, who usually got in the way more than she actually helped. She was so enthusiastic, however, that no one had the heart to tell her this. At my mother's insistence, she was paid two Galleons a week and could take weekends off if she chose.

The only absentee was my Uncle Charlie, who was on his honeymoon in Greece with his new bride, Bridget, after having suffered years of teasing over being the family bachelor. I missed him, but with so many people, it was impossible to be too upset over the loss of one person.

After dinner, which was as amazing as I'd expected, we all settled in the living room. Despite the new sofas which had been bought for the occasion, there were still people sitting in every nook and cranny. I cheered up slightly. Maybe we couldn't ignore Suzy in our room, but it wouldn't exactly be difficult to find someone else to talk to.

Swarna came in last, as she had been talking to Trixie. The elf had a tendancy to talk to anyone who would listen about how amazing Christmas was going to be and how happy she was to have so many people, and it was impossible to get away quickly. She looked around for a place to sit, seeming not to find one. James, seeing her at a loss, shuffled closer to Suzy on the two seater sofa they were sitting on, and waved her over.

'Come on, Swarna,' he called. 'There's room for three on this sofa.'

Swarna just smiled and went to sit down, but I could see in her eyes how happy she was. Suzy, on the other hand, was scowling, but I really didn't care about that. I felt Helen, sitting next to me, nudge me in the ribs, and knew she'd seen the look in Swarna's eyes too.

***

That evening, despite valiant attempts at conversation, everyone was too tired from travelling and stuffed full of food to stay up late. Jacob, exhausted, was fussing loudly, and Victoire spent most of her time gently rocking him from side to side. We all ended up going to bed early. This, of course, sparked a discussion over who would get to use the limited bathroom facilities first. Suzy managed to slip into one, leaving the four of us to go to our room, dress quickly, and flop onto the beds while we waited for her to come out.

'I can't _believe _we have to share with her!' Lily complained. 'She's going to make it impossible to talk about anything.'

'Yes, but where else is she supposed to stay?' Swarna pointed out sensibly. 'She definitely can't stay with James.'

We all grimaced at this idea, but were interrupted by Suzy returning. Unable to say more, we brushed our teeth as quickly as possible and went to sleep.

***

The next morning, I awoke early. After staring at the ceiling for about ten minutes, I got up and slipped on a sweater and jeans. All four of my roommates were still asleep, most looking peaceful and serene, although Helen appeared to be on the verge of falling off the bed. Grinning to myself, I went down to the kitchen to discover Grandma, Aunt Ginny, Victoire and Mum in the kitchen, starting breakfast.

'Morning, Rose,' they all said in unison.

'Good morning,' I said as cheerfully as I could manage. Still tired from the journey of the day before, I had a headache.

'You look exhausted,' said Mum sympathetically. 'Have a cup of tea.' She waved her wand once, and a tea bag flew off the counter and landed in a cup. The kettle then added boiling water, sugar and milk flew over and added themselves, and the tea bag flew out. The cup then flew off the counter, landing in front of me at the table.

I've always wished I was as good at magic as my mum.

I sipped the tea gratefully. However, it only gave me short relief, as everyone immediately wanted to know the details of my relationship with Aaron.

'He seems nice, Rose,' said Victoire warmly. 'You must be happy with him.'

I was saved answering this by Jake crawling into the kitchen. His hair, which had been blond last night, was now bright green. It appeared he had inherited the family talent of Metamorphosing. He went straight to Victoire, who picked him and took him into the next room to change his clothes.

Mum gave me a shrewd look. I had the feeling she'd noticed my reluctance to answer the question.

'I knew his father, you know, Cormac,' she said, 'We...went out for a bit, in my sixth year.'

I was gobsmacked. No one had ever told me this before.

'What happened?' I demanded.

Before she could reply, however, a loud crash announced the arrival of Al and Nigel, one of whom had tripped over the chair closest to the kitchen door.

After them, a whole rush of other people arrived, and Mum was so busy doling out toast and eggs that she didn't have time to tell me the story. I resolved to ask her for it later. I suddenly really wanted to know.

I managed to pass this new development on to my friends as we sat in our room later that morning, sipping Butterbeer that had been passed around by Trixie. Suzy was nowhere to be seen, so we had some privacy for once. Mum was downstairs surrounded by people, so no chance of asking her at the moment.

All at once, the door flew open, and Aaron rushed in. 'Hey, Rose!' he exclaimed. 'I've been looking all over for you!' He leaned forward to kiss me, but, annoyed, I pushed him away.

'What was that for?' he exclaimed, sounding angry.

'Er, you can't just barge in to other people's rooms,' I said, my tone matching his. 'We were having a private conversation.' Aaron might have gotten nicer lately, but his lack of manners still annoyed me.

'Well, you could just tell me what it's about,' he said. 'I _am_ supposed to be your boyfriend, although I'm not sure if you realise it.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' I shot back, with an uncomfortable feeling that I knew. I had been stupid to think he wouldn't notice my recent lack of enthusiasm in our relationship.

'You know what it means,' he said darkly, and walked out, slamming the door.

Helen, Swarna and Lily just stared at me.

'What are you going to do, Rose?' asked Lily. 'I mean, he kind of...has a point.'

'I know,' I said. 'I don't really want to talk about it.'

***

All three of them had very interested in what Mum had said, and we couldn't wait to find out the full story, but there just wasn't an opportunity. The first few days of the holidays passed quickly, in a rush of catching up on news and spending time with family. We'd all been at Grimmauld Place for nearly a week when it happened.

***

Over the past few days, we'd seen surprisingly little of Suzy. This wouldn't have been surprising at all, but for the fact that James often came downstairs without her. He sat with Swarna a few more times, and talked to her a lot, which made all of us happy, but did nothing whatsoever to explain where she was. James said she was doing holiday homework, but she was never in our room.

Not wanting to complain, however, we didn't pry into this too deeply, especially because every male in the household went out of his way to accommodate Suzy. She was generally given the best seats, and everyone would always get out of her way. It was seriously beginning to sicken me. Just because the girl was pretty, guys seemed unable to see her real personality. Not that she showed it to the adults. With them, she always had perfect manners, and acted sweet and innocent, constantly thanking them for inviting her to stay.

Meanwhile, Aaron and I had made up, but he had stopped trying to constantly stalk me. I only saw him two or three times a day, and all he'd want to do was talk. This was a relief, as I was still planning on ending things once we got back to school, and I was hoping I could do it without hurting him badly. I supposed he was spending time with Hugo, or doing holiday work like Suzy. The sixth year appeared to have been given a lot of work, and it was typical of James not to do any.

Without those two around, I thoroughly enjoyed the holidays, spending time with my friends and my family. James had finally forgiven me, and we were getting on well. On the sixth day of the holidays, however, something happened that shattered the peace.

Helen, Swarna, Lily, James, Hugo and I were sitting in our room playing with Jake and discussing possible pranks we could play on various people in the house, when James suddenly remembered a bag of products from George's store in his room, so we all trooped off to look at it.

On the way up the stairs to the third floor, we heard muffled noises coming from a nearby cupboard.

'What's that?' asked Swarna, stopping. 'Hadn't we better check it, in case Al or Nigel has gotten locked in, or something?'

James laughed, but nevertheless, reached out and tried the cupboard. It was locked. Hugo, who'd recently come of age, reached past and tapped the lock with his wand, muttering '_Alohamora.'_ The cupboard door came open, to reveal something none of us had thought we'd see.

In the cupboard, furiously kissing, were Aaron...and Suzy.

**Please review. Oh, and in the next chapter there will be more of the original characters :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: 100 reviews!!! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I really never thought this fic would get this far. Just so everyone knows, there are probably only around two or three chapters left. I'm thinking of writing a sequel based and more on action/adventure, but still with romance, of course – let me know your opinions! **

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

For a second, the scene seemed frozen. Aaron and Suzy sprang apart, both looking horrified. We all simply stared at them. Then, with no warning at all, James calmly took a step forward and punched Aaron in the face.

It broke the spell. Jake, in Lily's arms, started bawling his eyes out, probably sensing the sudden hostility in the air, and she rocked him gently to calm him, her eyes fixed on James.

Aaron crumpled to the floor, his nose bleeding. Apparently, despite all his stories of dangerous Quidditch manoeuvres and injuries sustained from playing, he was unable to take a single punch standing up.

'That,' said James, his voice clear and steady, which I thought was impressive, 'is what you get for cheating on _my _cousin, with _my_ girlfriend. I suggest you find somewhere else to go for Christmas before I hurt you worse than that.'

Aaron didn't even look at him, turning immediately towards me.

'Rose,' he said, lisping due to what looked like a broken nose, 'I'm so...sorry.'

Surprisingly, I wasn't too angry. I hadn't exactly been the best girlfriend. And at least things could be over between us now. I just wanted to put the whole relationship behind us.

'We're over, Aaron.' I said evenly, my voice as steady as James' had been. 'Let's just not talk about it.'

At this point, James turned to Suzy, and she immediately tried to make a break for it – God knows where she thought she could go – but I automatically moved closer to Lily, blocking her.

'You're not going anywhere,' I said through gritted teeth. 'You need to face the consequences of what you've done.' I found myself much angrier with Suzy than Aaron. She had to learn she couldn't just have any guy she wanted. Plus, what she'd done to James was unforgivable. Aaron and I had barely had a relationship, but those two had been inseparable for months.

'Get out of my way, Rose.' Suzy muttered. She shoved me, hard, and, reacting on instinct, I reached out and slapped her once across the cheek, hard enough to make a cracking noise.

Suzy put her hand up to her cheek, and glared at me, looking outraged. She reached into her pocket, and too late, I remembered that she had a September birthday and was old enough to use magic and outside school. _Damn it. _

Not sure what to do, I just stared at her, when Hugo, his own wand drawn and pointing at her, stopped her in her tracks.

'You do anything to my sister, Suzy, and I promise you, you will regret the day you set foot in this house.' Hugo said, in the most menacing voice I'd ever heard him use. Knowing she was beaten, Suzy lowered her wand. I was now staring at Hugo, unable to believe it. The last time he had stood up for me like that, I had been five and James had stolen my ice cream.

I have no idea what would have happened next, had Teddy not arrived.

***

He stopped, upon seeing Aaron, bleeding on the floor, Hugo, with his wand still pointing at Suzy, and Suzy, her wand still out and pointed in my direction.

'OK, what's going on here?' he asked, raising his eyebrows so much they practically disappeared underneath his hair, which today was as jet black as my Uncle Harry's.

'We found Aaron and Suzy making out in that cupboard,' said Helen helpfully, pointing to the cupboard in question.

Teddy's eyebrows actually did disappear under his hair.

'So James punched Aaron and Rose slapped Suzy, so Suzy tried to hex her but Hugo stopped her.' Helen finished, indicating each person as she mentioned them.

'Um, OK,' said Teddy, who clearly felt completely unable to deal with this situation. 'Why don't you all...er...come downstairs and we can all...er discuss what we're going to do about this.'

Ten minutes later, we were all in the kitchen. Teddy had gratefully handed us all over to my parents, plus Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. I could tell they all wanted to strangle both Aaron and Suzy, but were reining themselves in. Uncle Harry was the most in control of himself, so he did the talking.

'I think the best thing to do here,' he said grimly, 'is simply for the two of you, Aaron and Suzy, to leave as soon as possible. I can't throw you out on the street, but do the two of you have another place to go for Christmas?'

'I can go home,' said Aaron, who seemed to be actually feeling guilty, and was eager to be as helpful as possible. 'Suzy can come and stay with me too, if she likes.'

'No thanks,' replied Suzy, who just looked bored. 'I can just go home too.'

Looking relieved, Uncle Harry replied 'Fine then, I suggest you both go and pack.'

He walked out of the kitchen, symbolising that the conversation was over.

***

An hour later, Aaron and Suzy had departed for the station in another magically enlarged car, driven by my father, who I was willing to bet had only volunteered to drive them so he could yell at them. The adults had congregated in the kitchen to discuss what had happened, but all of us decided, rather than talking about it, we just wanted to do something to take our minds off it.

The eight of us ended up in the living room, sprawled over the sofas and just chatting. I felt like a huge weight had lifted off my shoulders, but understandably, James was a bit more upset, and we all tried our hardest to cheer him up. Swarna sat next to him, and they were soon deep in conversation with each other. Seeing this, I motioned to Lily and Helen and we all quietly left the room, dragging a confused Hugo, Al and Nigel with us. The two of them didn't even notice us leaving.

Upstairs in our bedroom, we all flopped back on the beds.

'Rose,' said Lily hesitantly, 'Are you really...completely fine with this?'

Before I could answer, the door opened and Trixie rushed in, did a mad sprint around the room magically Vanishing bits of dirt off the carpet, and ran out without speaking. The six of us just looked at each other, and then burst out laughing. It felt so good to laugh – like I hadn't done it in ages. And with that, I knew I really was completely fine.

***

The days passed, and soon it was Christmas Eve. The atmosphere in the house had greatly improved without Suzy and Aaron. The entire household now spent most of its time either in the living room, all talking and playing games at once, or decorating the house and helping to prepare the huge Christmas dinner. I loved every second. I also noticed Swarna and James spending a lot of time together – talking each evening, decorating together, tasting the food each other prepared, and hoped for a Christmas miracle for the two of them. Each time I thought this, I would laugh at myself for being so cheesy, but I couldn't help wishing it.

By Christmas Eve, the house had been completely transformed. There were lights everywhere, plus tinsel, mistletoe and paper chains, and a giant Christmas tree in the living room with a huge stack of presents underneath.

By about one o'clock in the morning, all the adults had called it a day and gone to bed, and so had Al and Nigel, leaving me, Helen, Lily, and Hugo downstairs, eating our way through our third tray of Grandma's mince pies. Swarna and James were suspiciously absent. Just as I was reaching for mince pie, Hugo scoffed the last one.

'Hugo!' I yelled playfully 'You've had at least ten! I've only had half as many as you have!'

'Sorry,' he apologised with his mouth full, not sounding in the least bit sincere.

'Hey Rose, didn't you buy a box of Chocolate Cauldrons last time we were in Hogsmeade? Why don't we eat that?' suggested Helen.

There were noises of enthusiasm at this suggestion, so I got up to go and get the box. I left the room, only to stop in my tracks in the hall.

Swarna and James were in there, gazing into each other's eyes. James was holding a sprig of mistletoe above their heads, and, completely unaware of my presence, he leaned forward and kissed her.

Grinning to myself, I crept up the stairs. Finally. James had moved on quickly, which made me think that maybe he had suspected Suzy after all, just in the back of his mind. I had never lied to him, and I knew he now felt guilty about not believing me.

I reached our room, and opened my trunk to grab the box of Cauldrons. They were underneath my Potions textbook, and as I moved it, I saw something sticking out of the pages. Pulling it out, I discovered a folded sheet of parchment with my name on it in stunning calligraphy.

With no idea what to expect, I opened the note – and in a million years, I never could have guessed what it said.

_Rose, _

_I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for how I've acted towards you for the past four years but I really like you. _

_Yours truly, _

_S.M. _

I just sat down on my bed, completely in shock. I had no idea whatsoever how to react to something like this. Scorpius. It had to be. But why...were my friends right? Did he like me? It seemed pretty obvious from this letter...

I was still sitting there, completely frozen, when the door opened, and Mum came in.

'Rose,?' she asked. 'What are you doing up here?'

'I thought you had gone to bed.' I replied, evading the question.

'I had, but I saw the light on in here, and I could still here the others downstairs. I thought you might have come in here because you were upset about Aaron,' she said, sitting down and putting her arm around me. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

'Not really,' I responded, leaning into her.

'My relationship with Cormac didn't last long, you know. To be completely honest, I was using him to make your father jealous.' She laughed bitterly. 'It's not something I'm proud of.'

The second she said that, something fell into place into my head. I remembered saying yes to Aaron asking me out...because I didn't want Scorpius to think I had a crush on him. I remembered seeing Scorpius watching us so many times, looking hurt. I remembered the look he'd given me in the Three Broomsticks, when he'd taken my hand in detention, how he'd complimented my tryout, the day he'd saved us from Grimsby...

Had I been doing the same thing as Mum? Had I said yes to Aaron to make Scorpius jealous? And then stayed with him because I didn't want to admit to myself that I feelings for Scorpius? Had it been Scorpius I'd liked all along?

I had a feeling I should have been more confused than ever right now. But somehow, I didn't feel confused. I felt like everything finally made sense.

Now if only I could work out what to do about it.

I looked at my mother, and suddenly it all came rushing out. I told her everything about Scorpius and Aaron, even showing her the note. When I was finished, I felt much better – like another weight had been lifted.

'Rose,' said Mum, gently. 'You know what you have to do, right?'

'What?' I asked, dreading the answer. I was sure it would be something about how I couldn't like a Malfoy and would have to put Scorpius out of my head forever.

'Tell Scorpius how you feel.' Mum said instead. 'Just tell him. You have to be brave.'

'You mean...you aren't angry because I like someone who's related to Draco Malfoy? Who Dad hates?'

'Of course not,' replied Mum. 'You might want to let me tell your father though.

We laughed together, then she added 'When you go back to school, just talk to him.'

I thanked her, and took the chocolates down to the others, thinking Mum was right. Only one problem. No way was I patient enough to wait the ten days until we got back to school. I was going to go to Scorpius's house, and talk to him. As soon as possible.

**Please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry, I know this has taken ages, but I got some extremely important exam results yesterday and was too nervous to write before I got them. Thankfully, they were good, so you get a chapter :). Hope you all enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

As everyone else joked and ate chocolates, I thought hard. My best chance of managing to escape unnoticed was to leave at night, so I had two choices. I could either leave right now – it was about 1:30 a.m. – or wait until tomorrow night. Much as I loved Christmas Day with my family, I didn't think I had the patience to sit through it. I would leave now, then.

Unable to believe I was doing this, I pretended to yawn and suggested we all go up to bed. Everyone – including Swarna and James, who had rejoined the rest of the group – reluctantly agreed, and we headed upstairs.

Once in our room, I filled my friends in on my plan. I would need them to cover for me in the morning. I expected them to try to stop me, but when I was finished, they all simply stared.

'So...what do you think?' I asked, somewhat lamely. It seemed to break the spell, as all three spoke at once.

'You like Scorpius Malfoy?' asked Swarna incredulously.

'You're going to fly to his house in the dark? Isn't that dangerous?' asked Lily, sounding worried for my safety.

'Where does he live?' asked Helen, more practically.

I paused. 'I haven't exactly perfected my plan yet.'

'So you don't know where he lives,' said Helen. 'How on earth are you going to get there?'

'I'll talk to Mum about it,' I replied with more confidence than I felt. 'She'll know.'

Swarna, who was sitting on her bed, her chin resting on her knees, looked right at my face and said seriously 'We're not going to be able to talk you out of this, are we Rose?'

I met her gaze, and our eyes locked. 'No,' I said, firmly, again with much more confidence than I actually felt.

She sighed. 'I suppose we'll have to help you, then. You go and find out where you're going, and we'll get your broom and the Invisibility Cloak out for you.'

'You'll need a coat and scarf, and probably gloves too,' added Lily with her usual brisk efficiency.

Helen had already opened my trunk and was looking for my broomstick.

I was more thankful that they were supporting me than I could say, but knew I had no time to tell them this. Mum could go to bed any second. She might even be in bed already. I hurried to her room as fast as I could.

She wasn't in bed. By some stroke of luck, I ran into her outside her room, obviously coming from the bathroom.

'Rose? Are you OK? What are you doing still up?' she asked, sounding worried.

Too late, I realised I should have thought this through. I didn't want to tell her my plan, but how else was I supposed to get the address?

'I was just thinking about Scorpius,' I improvised. 'He said he wouldn't be having a very good Christmas, and I was just wondering about his home and family.'

Mum laughed dryly. 'I'm not surprised he isn't looking forward to Christmas, especially if he's going to his family's manor in Wiltshire. I remember Malfoy Manor,' she said, looking as if the memories put a bad taste in her mouth. 'It's a huge place, very grand, but didn't feel at all like a home. It's miles from the nearest town, so there's never anyone else there, and it just feels so isolated.'

I was feeling sorrier for Scorpius with every word. Any guilt I felt about gatecrashing his Christmas Day celebration was disappearing. Maybe me turning up would make things better for him.

'Anyway, its late, Rose,' Mum continued. 'Go to bed, and we can talk about this tomorrow.'

My heart sank as I realised she hadn't really told me much except that the house was in Wiltshire. I only hoped my friends would have some kind of clever idea.

***

'No problem,' announced Swarna confidently. 'A place called Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire. I can find it.'

She reached into the drawer of her bedside and pulled out a small object with a screen and several buttons. It took me a while to realise this was something called a mobile phone. Mum had attempted several times to explain them to me, but I had never understood. Swarna, who was Muggle born, obviously knew a lot more about them than I did.

'This,' announced Swarna, 'is a mobile phone.' Lily nodded, but Helen just looked confused.

Ignoring this, Swarna went on. 'It has a navigation system. Rose, your uncle George put some kind of spell on it for me, so that it shows wizarding houses and works when you're flying as well as driving.'

'How did he do that?' asked Lily, sounding genuinely fascinated. 'Didn't the spell cause the phone to stop working?'

'No, he did something clever that no one but him really understands,' replied Swarna. 'Rose, you could borrow this one, or you could take the one I bought you for Christmas.' She raced out of the room and returned a minute later carrying a wrapped present, which she handed me.

'Wait, I now own one of those things?' I asked, temporarily distracted as I contemplated owning a Muggle electronic whose function I really didn't understand.

'I bought all four of us them for Christmas,' Swarna replied. 'They're far more convenient to use to talk than owls. George altered yours too, Rose.'

She took the phone and explained how to use it. I tried to take it all in as fast as possible, but never having used anything like this before, it took me a while to understand how to navigate. Unable to use magic, we duct-taped it to the front of my broom, and, armed with the Cloak, we slipped downstairs shortly after three.

'Don't forget, Rose, if something happens, just press the one button, then the green button, and your phone will call me so we can help you,' Swarna hissed as I headed out into the night.

I shook my head. Muggle electronics. So complicated.

***

An hour later, I had made it out of London. I flew through the night, desperately trying not to hit trees and streetlights, while still listening to the directions the phone was yelling at me.

The first time the strange metallic voice had come out of the phone, I had jumped so violently I almost fell off the broom. Now I was used to it, and I followed the directions it told me, only straying if I saw the lights of a huge town in front of me. I didn't want there to be any chance of either of my feet being spotted – there was a strong wind and there weren't always covered. Each time I strayed, the phone appeared to get confused and would start off with directions that made no sense, often making me double back and fly over areas I'd already passed. I seriously didn't trust it, but I had no choice but to follow it. Twice, I decided to ignore to the phone and try and navigate on my own using my knowledge of England, but both times, I was quickly forced to admit defeat and listen to its instructions.

Thanks to this method of navigation, it took me just over five hours to reach Scorpius' home. Just after 8, I saw the outline of the manor house, dark in the early morning fog. I felt a chill in the pit of my stomach. Mum had neglected to tell me how scary it was.

'You have reached your destination,' said the phone, scaring me out my wits. I ripped it off the broom and shoved it in the pocket of my jeans, duct tape and all, then descended quickly. I had already decided it might be safer to walk up to the house.

As I walked, trying to make as little noise as possible despite the fact that it was impossible for anyone in the house to hear me at this distance, I tried to figure out my plan. Obviously I couldn't just knock on the door and ask to see Scorpius. I would have to be more subtle than that.

Also, it was Christmas Day, and in all likelihood, no one would be up yet. It was only eight o'clock in the morning. The house itself would possibly be protected with enchantments. I knew this was much less common now than it had been during the war twenty years ago, but from everything I'd heard of Scorpius's father, I thought possibly this house would still have more security than most.

However, nothing out of the ordinary happened as I cautiously approached the house. I was close enough now to see the huge, elaborate iron gates, even through the fog. Unfortunately, there was no way through these that I could see. I would have to fly over them.

Mounting my broom, I kicked off and tried to fly over the gate. I couldn't. There seemed to be some kind of invisible wall blocking me. No matter how hard I pushed, it wouldn't let me through. A white peacock strutted past the gate, on the inside of course. It paused, stared at me, then moved on, ignoring me as if I were some insignificant disturbance that would soon disappear. I glared at it, sure that it was mocking me for not being important enough to come inside the manor.

Not knowing what else to do, I landed, pulled out the phone, and attempted to dial Swarna. I hit the one button, then the green one, just like she'd said, and put the phone to my ear. I knew that much about how to use these things.

A strange noise came out of the phone. I took it away from my ear and stared at it, unsure what to do. Maybe I'd broken it?

I was wondering what on earth to do now, when, miraculously, Swarna's voice came out of the phone.

'Rose? Are you OK?'

Putting the phone to my ear, I quickly explained the situation, while admitting grudgingly to myself that these things were actually quite useful. Much faster than owls.

'Rose? Have you actually tried to just open the gate?' Swarna asked.

'Well...no.' I replied, feeling a bit stupid. 'I bet it's locked though. Who goes to all the trouble of putting up an invisible wall and then doesn't lock their gate?'

'Just try it,' said Swarna impatiently.

I moved over to the gate and tried to open it. It was locked. Triumphantly, I opened my mouth to tell Swarna this, but just then, I saw someone moving in the mist.

'I have to go. Someone's coming.' I hissed into the phone, snapping it shut and shoving it into my pocket.

I stared through the gate at the moving figure. It looked female – I could see long hair, so I decided to wait where I was and take my chances. Scorpius's father was the person I was most scared to meet.

The figure came closer, and I realised it was Lucy, apparently taking an early morning walk in the grounds. OK, while that was better than any of Scorpius's family – probably – I still didn't think she would let me in. Maybe I should have hidden.

It was too late. Lucy had seen me. Eyes wide with disbelief, she came over, stopping on the other side of the gate, and hissed 'Weasley?! What on earth are _you _ doing here?'

I grasped the iron gate, too desperate to get in to come up with a rude response.

'Lucy, please open the gate,' I begged. 'I need to see Scorpius.'

'I'm not letting _you _in.' Lucy said through gritted teeth. 'There is no way he wants to see you.'

'He does! He left me a note.' So he hadn't exactly invited me, but I left that part out. 'Please Lucy! He's your friend and he wants to see me. Don't you want what's best for him? Please, I'm begging you, let me in.' I would literally have gotten down on my knees at that point if I thought that would make her open the gate. I hated how pathetic I was being, but I had no choice.

Lucy looked uncertain. I seized my chance. 'Look, if he doesn't want to see me, then you'll have the pleasure of watching me get kicked out. But please just give me a chance?'

'Fine,' she muttered. 'I really hope I don't regret this.'

She unlatched that gate and pulled it open, and I walked in, unable to believe I'd actually made it. Now to find Scorpius.

'Lucy?' I asked tentatively. She looked like she seriously regretted this decision. 'Where's Scorpius's bedroom?'

Lucy pointed to a window on the first floor, and without hesitating, I thanked her, mounted my broom, and flew off.

Leaving Lucy watching me in disbelief, I flew straight to Scorpius' window and looked inside. He was there, and awake, thank goodness. He has his back to me and was making the bed.

I banged on the window with my fist. He jumped, much like I had done upon discovering the phone talked, and turned towards me. For a second, he just looked surprised, but then his face lit up and he ran over to open the window.

Waiting for him, I felt a thrill of anticipation which quickly disappeared when I realised I had no idea what I was going to say. Suddenly, this plan was looking a lot less clever. Apparently, getting to Malfoy Manor hadn't been the hard part after all.

**Review please :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Final chapter! Writing this fic has been so amazing, look to the bottom of this chapter for all my thank yous and also news of the possible sequel. Also, I switch briefly to Lily's POV in this chapter. Couldn't resist writing about what happens at Grimmauld Place when they notice Rose is missing. I hope this doesn't upset anybody too much. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

Scorpius threw the window open as wide as it would go, and leaned out towards me.

'Rose? What on earth are you doing here?' he asked in a very different tone from Lucy. Despite the butterflies raging in my stomach and the way my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest, I realised I was extremely happy to see him, and it looked like the feeling was mutual.

'I got your note,' I explained breathlessly. 'I couldn't wait ten days to talk to you. I'm sorry I'm probably ruining your Christmas with your family-'

He cut me off. 'You're not ruining anything. But you should come inside, before my parents see you.'

He stepped aside, and I flew in through the window and landed on the carpet. His room was huge, but not very personal, I realised. My room at home had pictures of my family and friends, plus pictures of my Quidditch team everywhere. There was barely an inch of wall that was visible, and all the surfaces were covered in books and clutter.

Scorpius's room was the complete opposite. His books were in neat rows on a shelf, his desk was bare except for a few pieces of parchment and a quill, and the huge bed in the centre of the room was covered by a plain grey quilt. I realised Mum was right. This place didn't feel at all like a home. This realisation came with a wave of sympathy for Scorpius. What must it be like to come here every holiday?

'How did you get past the gate?' asked Scorpius, interrupting my thoughts. I turned towards him, and he added 'Sit down,' indicating the chair at his desk. I dropped into it, exhausted from flying all night, and explained about Lucy.

'So Luce let you in?' asked Scorpius, who was by this point sitting on the bed. He smiled to himself. 'I'll have to thank her later.'

I smiled too, unsure what to say to that. Suddenly, I had no idea what to say to him. How to tell him how I felt.

I took a deep breath. ''Scorpius, I came here to tell you...well it seemed from your note that-'

He cut me off again. 'Rose, don't worry about that note. I shouldn't have left it for you. It was a cowardly thing to do, and I'm sorry. Please don't feel you have to do or say anything because of it.'

'I'm not here entirely because of the note, Scorpius.' I replied, my heart pounding. '_Here we go. You're really going to tell him.' _I thought.

His eyes widened. 'You're not?'

***

**Grimmauld Place – Christmas morning**

**Lily POV**

The next morning, everyone was downstairs by nine to enjoy a family breakfast. Everyone had been forbidden to open presents until after we ate, and Al and Nigel were so excited they spent the entire meal jumping up and down on their seats, urging people to eat faster while they refused to eat a single bite.

Swarna, Helen and I, however, were much more subdued. The last we'd heard from Rose had been her phone call just after eight, and she'd hung up after seeing someone approaching. So we knew she'd made it to the manor, but had she gotten in? Who had found her? I pushed my cereal around my bowl, unable to eat it. I was actually considering slipping upstairs to do some holiday homework after breakfast to take my mind off things, when Mum spoke

'Girls? Where's Rose?' She said, finally asking the question we'd all been dreading since we came downstairs. 'If she's still asleep, I'd better go and wake her up.'

'She had a headache and wanted to sleep in,' Swarna said smoothly, sticking to our plan.

'I can give her a potion for that. She'll be upset if she misses Christmas morning.'

Mum got to her feet and we exchanged panicked glances. So much for our plan of concealing Rose's disappearance for as long as possible.

'Rose _is _upstairs, isn't she?' asked Aunt Hermione sharply. 'Are you three hiding something?'

I met Swarna's eyes and knew we'd simply have to tell the truth. No time to construct an elaborate cover story now, and even if we had time, I had no ideas whatsoever.

I took a deep breath. 'OK, we'll tell you. But Uncle Ron, you may not want to hear this.'

Uncle Ron turned towards me, looking furious. 'Lily, _where is my daughter?'_

Before I could explain, Helen did it for me in her usual blunt fashion. 'Rose has flown to Malfoy Manor to tell Scorpius Malfoy she loves him.'

There was a pause, and then all hell broke loose.

Half the kitchen stood up at once, and several chairs fell over. Everyone started yelling at once, asking for explanations on how she'd found the way, how she could possibly love someone who'd played pranks on her for four years, and on how on earth we were supposed to go and get her.

No one's reaction matched Uncle Ron's though. He slowly seemed to puff up, the way a balloon does when you blow air into it, then climbed to his feet, knocking over not only his chair but the two on either side of him. His face turned slowly from its usual pale to a deep red, then darkened to purple. I reflexively shrank back from him.

'Explain,' he thundered, looking like he was about to explode. Aunt Hermione rushed over to calm him down, then coaxed him back into his seat. Following his example, everyone else sat down as well.

'You three really do need to explain,' said Aunt Hermione, looking straight at me.

I sighed. Better begin at the beginning.

***

**Malfoy Manor**

**Rose POV**

'Rose, why are you here, if not because of the note?' Scorpius asked, staring at me.

'The note did help to bring me here,' I answered honestly. 'But I think even before that, I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to tell you something.'

He got up from the bed, walked over to the chair, and took my hand. 'Rose, what did you want to tell me?' he asked gently. His grey eyes locked with my brown ones and my breath caught in my throat.

'I wanted to tell you...IreallylikeyoutooandIwantustobetogether,' I said as fast as I could, before releasing my breath. It felt like I'd been holding it for years.

'Sorry, Rose, I didn't catch that,' he answered seriously. 'Could you try again, more slowly?'

I took another deep breath. He wanted me to say it _again_? I started again, more slowly this time, 'I really like you too. And I was thinking, maybe, if you wanted, we could...be together?'

He dropped my hand, staring at me in astonishment. 'Oh Rose,' he breathed.

In that moment, I really thought he was about to kiss me. But then his face changed.

'Wait, what about Aaron?' he asked.

I explained quickly what had happened at Grimmauld Place.

He frowned. 'I thought something like that might happen...I never did like Suzy.'

That didn't seem right. 'You didn't? Then what happened that night after the Quidditch match?'

He stared at me. 'How did you know about that?'

'I saw Suzy leaving and I thought she might be cheating on James so I followed her. Turns out I was right, wasn't I? He didn't believe me though.' Threads of anger were creeping into my voice. I'd forgotten about that night, too caught up in the note and my own feeling for Scorpius to think about it. Now, however, I needed an explanation.

'Rose, nothing happened between me and Suzy,' Scorpius said, his voice pleading. I knew he could see the anger in my face. 'She sent me a note asking me to meet her. I thought I knew what she was doing, and went along to tell her to stop, that I wasn't interested. She tried to kiss me, but I pushed her away.' He leaned towards me. 'Rose, please believe me. Nothing happened. I wouldn't do that to James...to you. I know how much you care about your family.'

Looking into his eyes, I did believe him, and it felt like a weight was lifting off my shoulders with the knowledge that he hadn't done anything wrong.

'I believe you.' I answered, and saw the relief in his face.

He smiled at me. 'So, were you serious about us? Won't your family object? Your father?'

I grimaced. He knew just as well as I did about the problems between our fathers. This would be difficult to explain, but I knew I didn't care.

'He will object, but it's OK.' I replied. 'We'll make it work.'

He smiled broadly, and then leaned forward and kissed me. It was a million times better than it had been with Aaron. Just like when he'd taken my hand, it felt so _right_. In that moment, I was absolutely sure that I'd made the right choice in coming here today, in telling him how I felt.

There was a thump downstairs, the sound of someone dropping something, and we sprang apart in surprise. He smiled at me again, looking happier than I'd ever seen him. Happier than I'd ever seen anyone, in fact, except perhaps Swarna and James when they'd rejoined us in the living room the night before.

'Rose, if you really want me to, I'll take you downstairs and explain to my parents right now,' he said, holding my face in his hands. 'But you might want to give me some time to explain first, and I'm not sure this is the best time to share the news. Dad's planning to visit my grandfather in Azkaban tomorrow, and they're already stressed enough about that.'

'No, this isn't the right time,' I agreed. 'I should be going anyway, it took me five hours to get here and my family will be wondering where I am. That is, if they don't know already. I'm sure Helen will probably have told them in the bluntest and most tactless way possible.'

He laughed. 'You flew five hours just to come and talk to me?'

I nodded. 'It would have taken less time, except Swarna gave me a mobile phone which gave me directions, only I didn't trust it so I kept getting lost, and it was dark, and-'

He stopped my babbling by kissing me again, but we were interrupted by the sound of someone calling him from downstairs.

'That's Mum,' said Scorpius, releasing me. 'You'd better go. Don't worry about the wall, it won't stop you getting out.'

'OK,' I replied, grabbing my broom and heading towards the window. 'I guess I'll see you back at Hogwarts.'

'I can't wait,' he replied warmly. I felt a tingle deep in my stomach.

'One more thing, Rose.'

I turned back. 'What is it?'

He was staring at me with the warmest smile I'd ever seen.

'Merry Christmas.'

**The End**

**OK, I hope everyone liked the end, and here are all my thank yous:**

**First off, to my wonderful friends, Swarna, Helen, Lucy, Suzy and Vicky for all their help in writing the plot, for proof reading each chapter, generally in the middle of the night, and for all their amazing suggestions, some of which were come up with at 3 o'clock in the morning. I couldn't have done it without you guys and I love you all :)**

**Secondly, to all my brilliant reviewers. I'm sorry I didn't manage to get replies to all of you, but please believe me when I say I've spent most of the summer away/ill/stressing over exam results/working, and I really didn't have too much spare time. Special thank yous to ari1990, firefairydog94, callmedaynuhh, mimimi213 and Mrs. Rose Malfoy for reviewing so many chapters, but to everyone who reviewed, I just want to say thank you so much, because all the reviews really helped motivate me to write more.**

**Lastly, I am considering writing a sequel to this fic, but I want to try my hand at something that isn't purely a romance. I'm considering something involving someone finding Hermione's old time turner (given back to her after the war) and accidently going back in time...and then bringing a teenage Tom Riddle back with them. There would DEFINITELY still be romance, and development of the relationships, though, so don't think they will just be left out. Please, please tell me in reviews/private messages if you think you would be interested in reading this sequel. **

**Thanks again to everyone, **

**Ami**


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